Michael Krigsman: Recommends Enterprises "discontinue use of" Dropbox

I'm feeling very ambiguous over the recent Dropbox fiascoes.

Call me naive, but I really do believe Drew, Arash and the rest of the Dropbox team really do have the best intentions.

On the other hand, they continuously keep tripping on their own shoelaces with horrible PR management and lackluster communication with their customers.

Dropbox should have expected that their newly published TOS would be scrutinized down to a microscopic level, making the latest shitstorm possible.

They probably did think that it would be scrutinized at the microscopic level, and that there wasn't anything controversial to find. The fact is that there isn't anything out of the ordinary here. I defy you to find a popular content sharing service that doesn't have some kind of license granting clause in its terms of service or eula.

So glad that Michael Krigsman of ZDNet has finally spoken on this issue. Enterprise software pundits are truly a gleaming beacon of wisdom and insight in this dark world of technology.

I wish I could make good money writing drivel like this. Here's his parting sentence, emphasized in the original to let you know that it contains Prodound Wisdom: "Therefore, continue using Dropbox for everyday file transfers where you value convenience over an absolute guarantee of privacy."

Let me stop to give the world's most sarcastic eye-roll. Where exactly should someone store their "stuff" (Dropbox's technical term) if what you want is Michael Krigsman's "absolute guarantee of privacy"?

I've you've paused, put you hand on your chin, and got lost pondering that conundrum, let me me help you out with an answer: There is no such place.

I have a lot of sympathy for these Dropbox guys. They're by no means perfect — those few hours of where their service was passwords-optional was pretty sad — but as someone just commented, they have their hearts in the right place. I attribute their PR troubles in part to the seemingly universal need for people to see idols toppled. I never had the Dropbox religion — a religion that some of my colleagues fell for, and hard — so I didn't suffer a mental breakdown when they revealed themselves to be merely human.

This is Hacker News. You're supposed to be here if you're a programmer or a technically-minded entrepreneur — or "starter," to use a term from 37signals that I am fond of — and that means that you should have an understanding and appreciation that products exist in the real world, where operational, legal, and business considerations complicate everything.

Upon reading about what Dropbox is dealing with here, the rational response for the Hacker News core audience is to do whatever irrational superstitious ritual you do to keep bad luck away. And also to hope that your products become successful enough to become the focus of the sort of scare mongering that this article perpetuates.

"if what you want is Michael Krigsman's 'absolute guarantee of privacy'...There is no such place"

That's exactly the guarantee that SpiderOak, Wuala, and Tarsnap make, all of whom encrypt data before storing it.