Dropbox telemetry can't be disabled • Hacker News Board

Re: Dropbox telemetry can't be disabled

#51

Post by alkonaut » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 10:06 AM UTC

I get that for some classes of "local-only" apps like compilers (famous from a recent discussion on the same topic), network communication can be surprising and therefore feel unnecessary. But for an app whose sole purpose is sending and receiving lots of sensitive private data to Dropbox servers, who has the energy to be outraged that there is also some other anonymous data sent such as program crash info?

I mean Dropbox has the contents of my files should I find it creepy or unnecessary that they know my RAM amount or what the last exception was?

Re: Dropbox telemetry can't be disabled

#52

Post by newaccount74 » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 10:07 AM UTC

popey wrote: post #34

I switched away from Dropbox to Syncthing https://syncthing.net/ a few years ago. Running it on Windows, Mac and Linux (I don't use it on mobile) to keep all manner of files in sync across a bunch of machines. While it doesn't have all the shell integration and end-user friendliness of Dropbox, it also doesn't have the pitfalls like (non-optional) telemetry and constant up-sell.

Syncthing is so much better than Dropbox. There are no accounts, so it's much easier to set up syncing between multiple machines that may not belong to the same user, or to shared devices. I use it to sync family documents, work documents, for syncing Factorio save games, ...

I've also never had problems with CPU usage (Dropbox often caused high CPU usage in some cases)

The only downside is that background sync on iOS with Möbius Sync doesn't work reliably, but I think that is mainly because of how Apple cripples background processing. It does sync quickly if you manually start the app.

It's a bit challenging for new users (you need to understand machine keys, folder identifiers, ignore lists), but once it's set up it just works.

Re: Dropbox telemetry can't be disabled

#53

Post by alkonaut » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 10:07 AM UTC

WhyNotHugo wrote: post #9

CJefferson wrote: post #5

I'll be honest, I don't really see the complaint here. The telemetry goes to telemetry.dropbox.com. You get this telemetry because you have installed the Dropbox desktop app, which means Dropbox already has lots of access to your machine. If this telemetry just went back mixed with normal Dropbox communications (like most apps), would people even be aware of it? There doesn't seem to be any discussion of what the tel…

> I'll be honest, I don't really see the complaint here. There is no explicit consent.

It's polite to be transparent about telemetry, but it's not like there is a requirement in any regulation anywhere to ask for explicit consent (e.g. similar to how GDPR works when PII is involved)

Re: Dropbox telemetry can't be disabled

#54

Post by alkonaut » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 10:08 AM UTC

Tepix wrote: post #22

WhyNotHugo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'll be honest, I don't really see the complaint here. There is no explicit consent.

In particular, consent may be a requirement by the GDPR.

It's obvious from the discussion that the GDPR isn't an issue here as there is no PII involved (as should be the case with all telemetry)

Re: Dropbox telemetry can't be disabled

#55

Post by trollied » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 10:09 AM UTC

Stopped using Dropbox a long time ago. Their constant "marketing" emails were bordering on scammy "Your dropbox is almost full!" etc - I try not to deal with companies that play these games.

Re: Dropbox telemetry can't be disabled

#56

Post by armchairhacker » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 10:10 AM UTC

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #19

Many times on HN, commenters have mocked those who questioned why someone would use Dropbox instead of a method controlled by the user. I guess becausse someone made lots of money from it or it became popular or something. I always found this perplexing because I look at solutions from the perspective of the user, namely, me, not from the perspective of a third party "tech" startup founder. It's insensitive to the pe…

I remember when Dropbox was new and it was possibly the only solution I could find to seamlessly sync files on multiple computers (or at least the only one I knew about).

There was this "Dropbox" folder in your home folder, and anything put in there would show up in the home folder on your other computer or operating system or eventually even your phone. I also knew about Apple File Sharing and it was basically that but much more intuitive and worked on separate networks and on Windows (maybe Dropbox was inspired by AFS and the write-only "Drop Box"). Drop Box just worked, and to less tech-savvy younger me that was the only thing that mattered.

Now we have 300+ other programs which can do the same thing, and I use Git/Github for syncing and woof/AirDrop for individual files, so no Dropbox for me. And probably not for most technical users either.

But the average non tech-savvy user still needs a cross-platform service which "just works". And I'm sure their are alternatives which also "just work", but Dropbox is popular, and they don't care about the telemetry.

Re: Dropbox telemetry can't be disabled

#57

Post by qwezxcrty » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 10:15 AM UTC

popey wrote: post #34

I switched away from Dropbox to Syncthing https://syncthing.net/ a few years ago. Running it on Windows, Mac and Linux (I don't use it on mobile) to keep all manner of files in sync across a bunch of machines. While it doesn't have all the shell integration and end-user friendliness of Dropbox, it also doesn't have the pitfalls like (non-optional) telemetry and constant up-sell.

The essential feature that Syncthing as a Dropbox replacement lacks is public sharing.

Although requested by many users throughout the years, the maintainers never considered it seriously.

Re: Dropbox telemetry can't be disabled

#58

Post by zamnos » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 10:16 AM UTC

alkonaut wrote: post #54

Tepix wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In particular, consent may be a requirement by the GDPR.

It's obvious from the discussion that the GDPR isn't an issue here as there is no PII involved (as should be the case with all telemetry)

The GDPR lists IP addresses as PII, and not to be all "your IP address is leaking" but in order to send the telemetry, your computer's IP (or that of your VPN) is being sent to Dropbox, potentially to be logged.

Re: Dropbox telemetry can't be disabled

#59

Post by chrisyeah » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 10:20 AM UTC

The discussion is from 2020/2021. That would have been good to mention in the title on HN.

Re: Dropbox telemetry can't be disabled

#60

Post by p-e-w » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 10:20 AM UTC

qwezxcrty wrote: post #57

popey wrote: post #34

I switched away from Dropbox to Syncthing https://syncthing.net/ a few years ago. Running it on Windows, Mac and Linux (I don't use it on mobile) to keep all manner of files in sync across a bunch of machines. While it doesn't have all the shell integration and end-user friendliness of Dropbox, it also doesn't have the pitfalls like (non-optional) telemetry and constant up-sell.

The essential feature that Syncthing as a Dropbox replacement lacks is public sharing. Although requested by many users throughout the years, the maintainers never considered it seriously.

And I'm glad they didn't. The mere existence of such a feature would make me worry about unintentionally enabling it and exposing private data as a result.