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Dropbox Forums: New Sharing Model

forums.dropbox.com

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Re: Dropbox Forums: New Sharing Model

#31

Post by naner »

dpcan wrote: post #22

I don't know why, but I all of a sudden feel like all my private dropbox data is now vulnerable to some form of hack, bug, exploit, malicious script, etc, that turns it all into a public web page. Sharing with just people I know is one thing, but creating a web page of some of my data is another. I don't know, it just doesn't feel right. Dropbox, remember, you're dealing with private files on our personal computers,…

Google Docs does this too, btw. AFAICT it only creates a public link for a file/folder if you request it.

Re: Dropbox Forums: New Sharing Model

#32

Post by logic »

blaix wrote: post #29
aero142 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. It's all fun and games until someone shares an image and it goes to the front page of Reddit.

Wouldn't this already be an issue with the Public folder?

Yes: https://www.dropbox.com/help/45

"There are currently no hard limits on public bandwidth usage. We do, however, have an automated system for detecting and flagging unusual amounts of bandwidth usage. We will send an email notification whenever an account is flagged. Once flagged, public links will be temporarily disabled and users who use the links will see an error page instead of your file."

So, there's no bandwidth limit, but there's a bandwidth limit. :)

Re: Dropbox Forums: New Sharing Model

#33

Post by toastador »

apowell wrote: post #27
dpcan wrote: post #22

I don't know why, but I all of a sudden feel like all my private dropbox data is now vulnerable to some form of hack, bug, exploit, malicious script, etc, that turns it all into a public web page. Sharing with just people I know is one thing, but creating a web page of some of my data is another. I don't know, it just doesn't feel right. Dropbox, remember, you're dealing with private files on our personal computers,…

Yes, I have to add to this sentiment. In my mind, I imagine Dropbox to be just as secure and private as my own hard drive. It's a bit of a fiction, I know, but until now nothing caused me to really question it. I use it for important files -- the sensitive ones that I really don't want to lose. Maybe it's all perception, but this makes my private files feel dangerously close to the wide open web. Dropbox, don't make…

Hey guys,

I helped build this feature and just wanted to say we're as concerned about privacy and security as you are. A couple specifics that might help:

* No feature is for everyone -- this is opt-in in the strictest sense. (And, since you pick the files/directories, as fine-grained as you want.)

* You can disable a link anytime: from the the sharing tab (https://www.dropbox.com/share), click "Linked Items" to see all your links and disable anything.

* 3 means of sharing (shared folders, a public dir, and sharing links) gives you more control over privacy, not less.

* Similar to etherpad links, the shortened db.tt links are public but unfeasible to guess. We've heard a few concerns about the 6-digit hashes -- well, as more links are shared, don't assume the hash will stay at 6 digits :) can't get into details but we do a few more things to make link fishing near-impossible.

Re: Dropbox Forums: New Sharing Model

#34

Post by MikeCapone »

toastador wrote: post #33
apowell wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I have to add to this sentiment. In my mind, I imagine Dropbox to be just as secure and private as my own hard drive. It's a bit of a fiction, I know, but until now nothing caused me to really question it. I use it for important files -- the sensitive ones that I really don't want to lose. Maybe it's all perception, but this makes my private files feel dangerously close to the wide open web. Dropbox, don't make…

Hey guys, I helped build this feature and just wanted to say we're as concerned about privacy and security as you are. A couple specifics that might help: * No feature is for everyone -- this is opt-in in the strictest sense. (And, since you pick the files/directories, as fine-grained as you want.) * You can disable a link anytime: from the the sharing tab ( https://www.dropbox.com/share ), click "Linked Items" to se…

> Similar to etherpad links, the shortened db.tt links are public but unfeasible to guess

I imagine people will be searching Google for them, and later creating programs that just go through all the possibilities (if the hash isn't long enough), download whatever they can find, and then later go through whatever they got to see if there's anything of value.

Re: Dropbox Forums: New Sharing Model

#35

Post by dpcan »

toastador wrote: post #33
apowell wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I have to add to this sentiment. In my mind, I imagine Dropbox to be just as secure and private as my own hard drive. It's a bit of a fiction, I know, but until now nothing caused me to really question it. I use it for important files -- the sensitive ones that I really don't want to lose. Maybe it's all perception, but this makes my private files feel dangerously close to the wide open web. Dropbox, don't make…

Hey guys, I helped build this feature and just wanted to say we're as concerned about privacy and security as you are. A couple specifics that might help: * No feature is for everyone -- this is opt-in in the strictest sense. (And, since you pick the files/directories, as fine-grained as you want.) * You can disable a link anytime: from the the sharing tab ( https://www.dropbox.com/share ), click "Linked Items" to se…

The problem is how close my data is to being a web page now.

I feel like all that private data is one click away from being public. Anyone passing by my computer can right click and change a folder to a web page, when they get back to their PC, download everything.

At least before there was somewhat of a barrier, though narrow, it was there.

Do the "linked" files at least get a new bold icon with a globe on it or something so I know it's public. Do I get an email when a folder is made public? Something? What if a malicious script is run on my computer that just makes everything public in my Dropbox folder?

Re: Dropbox Forums: New Sharing Model

#36

Post by stricken »

herrherr wrote: post #20
stricken wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you still choose which files and folders to make linkable. Anything you give a url to you should consider to be public anyway.

By default all my folders are linkable. Can you tell us how to change that?

They're only linkable AFTER you choose to get the link for them.

Remove linked items here: https://www.dropbox.com/share#tab:linked-items

Re: Dropbox Forums: New Sharing Model

#37

Post by woid »

logic wrote: post #32
blaix wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't this already be an issue with the Public folder?

Yes: https://www.dropbox.com/help/45 "There are currently no hard limits on public bandwidth usage. We do, however, have an automated system for detecting and flagging unusual amounts of bandwidth usage. We will send an email notification whenever an account is flagged. Once flagged, public links will be temporarily disabled and users who use the links will see an error page instead of your file." So, there's no band…

Yes, it happened to me already. They temporarily disabled the public link after 10GB of traffic or so.

Re: Dropbox Forums: New Sharing Model

#38

Post by woid »

I tried the feature and I like it. The only confusion was about "Copy to my DropBox" button. It does only one-time snapshot of the shared area. I would expect to have live access to shared area through my local folder.

Re: Dropbox Forums: New Sharing Model

#39

Post by ivankirigin »

natrius wrote: post #9

Bonus points to the first person to write a FUSE filesystem to mount shared Dropbox folders so you can easily download the entire contents of a folder. Or they could just add a "download folder" link, but that sounds boring. It also looks like they want people to use "Copy to my Dropbox" for that, which would lead to more signups.

There is a link at the top that says "copy to my dropbox"

Re: Dropbox Forums: New Sharing Model

#40

Post by saturdayplace »

dpcan wrote: post #35
toastador wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey guys, I helped build this feature and just wanted to say we're as concerned about privacy and security as you are. A couple specifics that might help: * No feature is for everyone -- this is opt-in in the strictest sense. (And, since you pick the files/directories, as fine-grained as you want.) * You can disable a link anytime: from the the sharing tab ( https://www.dropbox.com/share ), click "Linked Items" to se…

The problem is how close my data is to being a web page now. I feel like all that private data is one click away from being public. Anyone passing by my computer can right click and change a folder to a web page, when they get back to their PC, download everything. At least before there was somewhat of a barrier, though narrow, it was there. Do the "linked" files at least get a new bold icon with a globe on it or som…

Anyone passing by your computer already can get to your files.
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