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Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Google login

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Re: Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Google login

#41

Post by pedro2 »

merlinscholz wrote: post #21
pgt wrote: post #10

Hmm. My Dropbox Pro subscription renewal is coming up. Is there an alternative to Dropbox that isn't iCloud or Google Drive? I would like to pay for Tarsnap but I don't understand 250 picodollars / byte-month.

I'm currently using onedrive for business (5$/month for 1tb, exchange and some other office goodies). I can highly recommend it, the privacy probably is not perfect with it being a Microsoft product after all. But the apps are superb and Android/iOS photo upload are a big plus.

I am repeating myself from another thread but I'm 90% sure of the answer and no-one checks: are you sure OneDrive works well? Can you sync PST files? [1]

[1] https://www.eejournal.com/article/onedrive-down-the-road-to-...

Re: Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Google login

#42

Post by lima »

paublyrne wrote: post #8
lima wrote: post #5

Wow, this is awful. I just tried to log into my account and I can't unless I give them access to my contacts. This is completely unacceptable - feels like a ransom.

You should be still able to log in with the same email with user/password, without being asked for a new permission.

I don't even have a password, I think.

Re: Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Google login

#43

Post by grishka »

I really wish mobile OSes would allow you to grant apps permissions but serve fake data, (that's important!) without giving the app the ability to tell the difference. Just so it appears to the app that you've given the permission, when you in fact have not. This would solve this entire class of problems and then some. So, for example:

- App "has" access to contacts, but the system returns that you have none.

- App "has" access to location, but the search for GPS satellites never completes.

- App "has" access to storage, but it's actually /dev/null.

Re: Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Google login

#44

Post by Nextgrid »

quantumofalpha wrote: post #3

Isn't that against GDPR for european users?

It is but the GDPR isn't being enforced even against bigger and more blatant violations so there's no risk there.

(please don't refute this with a link to enforcementtracker.com unless you can show me a fine that's even remotely close to being dissuasive)

Re: Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Google login

#45

Post by tallanvor »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #2

DropBox seems to have decided that the only way for them to grow is to turn their data sync platform into a collaborative platform. Makes a whole lot of sense to steal contacts from all your users. FYI - never use oauth to log into anything you care about.

> FYI - never use oauth to log into anything you care about.

I definitely agree with this. While it's true that Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple are probably better at securing accounts than most other companies, there's always the possibility that they can be compromised.

Another problem is that if your oauth provider decides to close your account for whatever reason, it may be difficult or impossible to unlink everything from it.

Not only do I create real accounts for any service I want to use, I divide them up among multiple separate email accounts, so that if one account is compromised, I limit the associated services that are vulnerable as a result.

Re: Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Google login

#46

Post by pedro2 »

camhart wrote: post #23
pgt wrote: post #10

Hmm. My Dropbox Pro subscription renewal is coming up. Is there an alternative to Dropbox that isn't iCloud or Google Drive? I would like to pay for Tarsnap but I don't understand 250 picodollars / byte-month.

I like https://tresorit.com . It's end to end encrypted. Doesn't work as smoothly as Dropbox, but worth it IMO.

Yah, looked at it too. Still thinking if E2EE is worth losing search and OCR.

Re: Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Google login

#48

Post by thedanbob »

pgt wrote: post #10

Hmm. My Dropbox Pro subscription renewal is coming up. Is there an alternative to Dropbox that isn't iCloud or Google Drive? I would like to pay for Tarsnap but I don't understand 250 picodollars / byte-month.

I use a mix of syncthing and seafile. Syncthing is very simple to setup and pretty much set-and-forget. Seafile is more involved but the end result is closer to the classic Dropbox experience.

If you’re not interested in self-hosting and just want a straight Dropbox replacement, I’d look into Nextcloud providers.

Re: Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Google login

#49

Post by arendtio »

merlinscholz wrote: post #11
beastman82 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not following. What's wrong with oauth?

When Google's AI (=RNG) decides to terminate your account (maybe you typed a few too many comments on YouTube, this has happened to people), you'll lose every service for which you used Google to sign in with. Also, the usual tracking stuff.

In addition, you are limited to the few providers which are being supported by the platform. So you can't simply create your own authentication provider as it was possible with OpenID.

Re: Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Google login

#50

Post by marcedwards »

pgt wrote: post #10

Hmm. My Dropbox Pro subscription renewal is coming up. Is there an alternative to Dropbox that isn't iCloud or Google Drive? I would like to pay for Tarsnap but I don't understand 250 picodollars / byte-month.

I moved to Tresorit, and so far it’s been great. It’s end-to-end encrypted/zero-knowledge. The service is a little bit enterprise-y, but really solid. I’ve done all I can to test and and haven’t been able to flaw it. Merge conflicts end up as duped files, just like Dropbox, which is great.

Their Mac app is good. It’s native and doesn’t use a ton of resources (I haven’t used it on other desktop platforms). AFAIK, it doesn’t support APFS extended attributes, so Finder tags won’t get synced. It does use the Finder sync extension API though.

It works slightly differently to Dropbox — rather than just being a single folder that syncs, it’s more like selective sync, where you have multiple folders that are optionally synced. This confused me a little during setup, but I think I prefer it now.

I tried pretty much all the other alternatives and didn’t like them. I’m already paying for iCloud Drive, so I’d love that to work, but it’s chewed up files or taken hours to sync on too many occasions, so I don’t trust it any more.

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