Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service • Hacker News Board

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#271

Post by aidenn0 » Tue, Mar 12, 2019, 4:03 PM UTC

RussianCow wrote: post #196

rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using it for (almost) everything and it has always work perfectly: I keep my phone's picture in sync with my personal computers ("send only" so I can remove old photos when my SD card is getting full). I sync a "media" folder where I dump all the music and video I download with the youtube-dl CLI (a "yt" alias makes sure the files are stored in the right directory with some custom parameters). I sync my Kee…

I love it as well, but my one gripe with the Android app is that it does not support read/write sync on external storage (SD cards). This means, in my case, that I have to share photos from my phone in a read-only fashion. It's not a deal-breaker by any means, but it's annoying, because if I want to add photos to my collection that were obtained elsewhere (e.g. my underwater camera), I have to transfer those files to…

I would suspect that if you reconfigure your SDCard to be internal storage then it will work again. This is a limit of Android permissions that happened a couple of major versions ago (I use a different tool for file transfer and I remember when it stopped being able to transfer files to external storage).

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#272

Post by gshulegaard » Tue, Mar 12, 2019, 4:04 PM UTC

crusso wrote: post #253

[Deleting this post as much as able. Didn't realize that the fanboys would be so insulted that I disagreed with Mozilla's marketing policy.]

So since you don't need to sign up for anything in order to use Send, I am assuming you mean creating a Firefox Account which increases the send limit from 1 GB to 2.5 GB as well as enables some nifty Firefox features like tab sync.

Since it had been awhile, I tried to create a new Firefox account with an alternate e-mail of mine...and found that there is an opt-in check mark for newsletters and IT'S UNCHECKED BY DEFAULT. Since I can't embed images here, have a Send link to a screenshot:

https://send.firefox.com/download/bd0ea1c123/#99POcyrXU3Y0jv...

So it is starting to seem like you are intentionally smearing Mozilla for a fake problem.

Not to mention you are conflating marketing spam with privacy issues.

Edit: I made the send link valid for 100 downloads or 7 days which is the max...but if you click the link and it doesn't work just know that it's because it has hit the limit, not that Send is unreliable.

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#273

Post by antidaily » Tue, Mar 12, 2019, 4:04 PM UTC

waplot wrote: post #269

crusso wrote: post #253

[Deleting this post as much as able. Didn't realize that the fanboys would be so insulted that I disagreed with Mozilla's marketing policy.]

are you that stupid? just enter a bogus email.

That's illegal.

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#274

Post by eatbitseveryday » Tue, Mar 12, 2019, 4:04 PM UTC

crusso wrote: post #253

[Deleting this post as much as able. Didn't realize that the fanboys would be so insulted that I disagreed with Mozilla's marketing policy.]

Please don’t use code formatting except for code. Long lines require significant horizontal scrolling.

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#275

Post by medmunds » Tue, Mar 12, 2019, 4:04 PM UTC

benawad wrote: post #215

> Key Business Question to Answer: Is the value proposition of a large encrypted file transfer service enough to drive Firefox Account relationships for non-Firefox users. The metrics section is interesting https://github.com/mozilla/send/blob/master/docs/metrics.md

Oh interesting. Their two hypotheses (which they will test) are that Send "can drive Firefox Accounts beyond the Firefox Browser" and that it will "will provide a valuable platform to research, communicate with, and market to conscious choosers..."

It sounds like they're investigating a premium service offering targeted at privacy conscious users. (The secondary hypothesis covers "revenue" and will be tested by conducting "research tasks ... in support of premium services KPIs.")

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#276

Post by m-p-3 » Tue, Mar 12, 2019, 4:06 PM UTC

mFixman wrote: post #12

I can't believe that there isn't a simple service to transfer data between my cellphone and my computer without going through the internet. iTunes is terribly bloated, MTP is a mess, and Bluetooth is slow and frustrating. Back in my hacker day I used to have an SSH server open on my cellphone and use it to transfer files back and forth with my computer. Why isn't there a mainstream service like that?

I'm on Android, and Syncthing is pretty seamless once configured. I just configure my cellphone, my laptop and my desktop to sync a specific directory in both directions.

It's decentralized, end-to-end encrypted and does local discovery of devices on a LAN so it will also works offline.

As long as one device lives and is synced, I have a copy of the files.

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#277

Post by eythian » Tue, Mar 12, 2019, 4:06 PM UTC

cr0sh wrote: post #258

TulliusCicero wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm sure people who know more than me will give me a list of great reasons why it's not straightforward to implement... Nah, Android phones have done this forever, it's not technical difficulties stopping it from working. It's The Apple Way . They don't want you using your phone that way, or something.

> Nah, Android phones have done this forever Your only option today is MTP on Android, and it stinks. At one time, Android did support showing up as a mass storage device. I know when I first got a G1, then the phone I had after that - both you could plug in, and they appeared as a mass storage device. Just like a USB thumb drive. I don't recall if you could use the file system at the same time on both sides; I doubt…

> My theory on why they switched was to keep people from easily side-loading APKs, and backing them up easily, etc. I think it was all part of the battle to keep people from really owning their phones, keep them from rooting them, etc.

Or, more realistically, by having file access mediated by the phone, you can:

* have the filesystem available to multiple systems at once. If it's mounted as USB mass storage then it must stop being visible to the phone itself. That's not great, especially if there are apps etc. there. To not have apps there, you'd need to partition. That sucks. So, also...

* you can use any filesystem you want. You're not restricted to things like VFAT. By not being USB mass storage, you can run BtrFS if you're so inclined and not have Windows get upset when you plug it in.

* the phone is able to restrict what is seen by the computer. This is a security benefit. I don't want someone slurping my TOTP key database because I foolishly leave my phone unlocked somewhere.

Also, you can still root phones just fine if you buy one that isn't user-hostile.

So, there are solid technical reasons for the change that make things better for a large number of users (who, amongst your average user these days, really wants to plug their phone in to the computer to move files around? I'd estimate vanishingly few.)

> My current phone is an S7 (TMobile version) - and they've made it hard as heck to actually root; it seems like every time they come out with a way to do it, Samsung/T-Mobile updates to prevent it.

Well of course they do. a) they are use hostile, so they don't give you a path. b) because there's no official path, any method that does exist must be a security vulnerability. Do you want to have a vulnerable device?

Don't buy user hostile stuff and then complain that it doesn't let you do what you want.

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#278

Post by aeturnum » Tue, Mar 12, 2019, 4:07 PM UTC

crusso wrote: post #253

[Deleting this post as much as able. Didn't realize that the fanboys would be so insulted that I disagreed with Mozilla's marketing policy.]

Marketing mail is garbage and a bad user experience but it is not a privacy concern!

A privacy violation would be having your information revealed to someone without your knowledge / permission. Mozilla has not violated your privacy by sending the email you gave them marking emails! It's bad, but it's not bad for privacy-related reasons.

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#279

Post by crusso » Tue, Mar 12, 2019, 4:07 PM UTC

gshulegaard wrote: post #272

crusso wrote: post #253

[Deleting this post as much as able. Didn't realize that the fanboys would be so insulted that I disagreed with Mozilla's marketing policy.]

So since you don't need to sign up for anything in order to use Send, I am assuming you mean creating a Firefox Account which increases the send limit from 1 GB to 2.5 GB as well as enables some nifty Firefox features like tab sync. Since it had been awhile, I tried to create a new Firefox account with an alternate e-mail of mine...and found that there is an opt-in check mark for newsletters and IT'S UNCHECKED BY DEF…

[deleted]

Re: Firefox Send: Free encrypted file transfer service

#280

Post by gshulegaard » Tue, Mar 12, 2019, 4:08 PM UTC

crusso wrote: post #279

gshulegaard wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So since you don't need to sign up for anything in order to use Send, I am assuming you mean creating a Firefox Account which increases the send limit from 1 GB to 2.5 GB as well as enables some nifty Firefox features like tab sync. Since it had been awhile, I tried to create a new Firefox account with an alternate e-mail of mine...and found that there is an opt-in check mark for newsletters and IT'S UNCHECKED BY DEF…

[deleted]

> With Send you can share file sizes up to 1GB quickly. To send files up to 2.5GB, sign up for a free Firefox account.

From the blog post linked in this topic.

Edit (to address your edit about marketing emails and privacy):

Respectfully, I disagree. Privacy issues center around the invasion, and in extreme cases outright elimination, of privacy of individuals. This is when entities use (your) data to identify you even when you are trying to stay anonymous. When it becomes impossible for you to have privacy.

To be honest, this central issue has a fairly vast umbrella...but no, taking an e-mail (without a name even) and placing it on a marketing campaign list with explicit user consent via a true opt-in does not fall under that umbrella in my opinion.