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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

#351

Post by a1369209993 »

tomsmeding wrote: post #55
grishka wrote: post #43

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 "…

While for contacts and location that would be a good feature (I agree!), I'm not so sure about storage. It may be nice for certain rogue apps (or ones that request permissions they don't actually need) to give them /dev/null without them knowing, but that may actually result in bugs and unstable behaviour if apps are written to expect working storage. Storage doesn't have a built-in failure mode like contacts and loc…

> Storage doesn't have a built-in failure mode like contacts and location have.

Yes it does: disk full. It's perhaps a bit less reasonable to expect a program to keep working properly in such a case, but it needs to be handled somehow.

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

#353

Post by nbzso »

Ensorceled wrote: post #18

I left dropbox when they changed the full page upsell to "dropbox business" so that I couldn't easily figure out how to skip it and get on with my work. I had a paid pro account at the time. I actually had a conversation with a product manager; I checked the yes you can contact me when I cancelled my account. They simply refused to admit that an upsell was a advertisement and that disrupting my workflow on my paid, p…

I am early user of Dropbox. Everything was fine and then three devices per account policy arrived. The next morning I deleted all my files. Bought my self a Synology installed Cloud Station and now I have a my own cloud storage, with no ads or shady UX.

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

#354

Post by pan69 »

This has been like this for a while, I tweeted to their support about this over a year ago. No response of course...

It's a total dick-move by Dropbox since access to Contacts is clearly not necessary for Dropbox to work.

However, the real problem here is obviously Google Login that only allows blanket permissions to either accept or reject.

Permissions should be granular and as a user I should have the ability the "untick" access to Contacts if I don't want to give an app access to that data. If I untick a permission that is needed for app functionality, e.g. I deny camera access to a camera app, then the app simply would be able to do that feature.

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

#355

Post by ndiscussion »

novok wrote: post #339
ndiscussion wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of it is probably caused by demographics - torrents are pretty popular in countries where 4k is not the norm and may not be accessible. FWIW I have 20/10 vision (twice as sharp as "perfect normal") and have never seen the appeal of retina screens or 4k. edit: Also the file sizes are vastly larger for 4k for an incremental benefit.

You should see a 1080p vs 4k HDR video of the same thing on an OLED and see the difference. I see the difference all the time. The mandolorian is a good one for that.

I don't have a 4k screen currently but it looks like most TVs support 4k nowadays, so if my TV ever dies, I'll be sure to try this. Thanks for the viewpoint.

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

#356

Post by mleonhard »

matsemann wrote: post #60
KingOfCoders wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same with the ads for Amazon videos on Amazon Prime. They are ads and I don't want ads. But they don't see it that way (don't get me started on the forced watching of texts on Blue Rays).

Yes wtf, I'm already paying and trying to watch a series I enjoy, stop pestering me. Just one of many dark patterns at Amazon, cancelling Prime is so difficult that Norwegan Consumer Council and 15 others yesterday started a legal fight with Amazon: https://www.forbrukerradet.no/siste-nytt/amazon-manipulates-... The video there is quite aggravating.

I called Amazon to cancel Prime. I wanted them to record my reason for cancelling. And I wanted them to spend some extra money answering my phone call and talking to me.

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

#357

Post by paride5745 »

teraku wrote: post #125
mtzet wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do provide provide first-party Linux support, which Google and Microsoft lack. What other reason should I have for trusting Microsoft or Google over Dropbox? (Serious question, I've been considering my cloud sync provider recently).

There are working open source clients for OneDrive. You can just encrypt the data you pump into OneDrive (or any cloud provider you don't trust) and just use it for quick online access and then sync everything into your local NAS/server.

Exactly this.

I have my data on my NAS and I keep on Onedrive and GDrive only what I might need while around.

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

#358

Post by manigandham »

permo-w wrote: post #342
jonpurdy wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great example of why I still prefer torrenting films and TV shows as opposed to using my wife’s Netflix sub: the pirated media is better! Netflix and Hulu and competing with easier to use and more flexible pirated media, whether they like it or not. The consistency and flexibility of the VLC interface (or whatever media player you choose) is vastly better than whatever features a Netflix PM is trying to pus…

If VLC had a slightly prettier interface, a better logo, and more intuitive queueing/playlists, it would be perfect Okay, I’m sure the logo has meaning to the devs, so they don’t mind it looking like an error message. That’s fair. They aren’t Instagram, they’re not going for the lowest common denominator. And, okay, the UI works, so why fuck with it? But why doesn’t it play the next video in a directory when you’ve f…

Just drag an entire folder or multiple files into VLC and it'll play everything in order automatically.

I use MPV which has a much more minimal UI and better performance: https://mpv.io/

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

#359

Post by manigandham »

jonpurdy wrote: post #200
jjbinx007 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ads on Amazon Prime are infuriating. And I can't help think how annoying it must be for people with disabilities. My other bugbear are the auto playing videos on Netflix and the use of massive spoilers in episode thumbnails. As a single consumer in a vast ocean I don't think my opinions will ever be listened to. Right now it's worth putting up with this crap as the benefits outweigh the cost but if it gets any worse…

This is a great example of why I still prefer torrenting films and TV shows as opposed to using my wife’s Netflix sub: the pirated media is better! Netflix and Hulu and competing with easier to use and more flexible pirated media, whether they like it or not. The consistency and flexibility of the VLC interface (or whatever media player you choose) is vastly better than whatever features a Netflix PM is trying to pus…

Agreed. Also there are in-between services like Put.IO that provide better UX while handling most of the technical bits: https://put.io/

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

#360

Post by manigandham »

rhino369 wrote: post #323
matheusmoreira wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, piracy is almost always the better service. How the hell can a bunch of enthusiasts come up with a better service than multi-billion dollar companies? They seriously need to stop and rethink their industry. When I use my Netflix I get a horribly compressed "high definition" picture, annoying autoplaying ads for shows I don't care about and a constantly decreasing amount of content. Piracy offers the opposite of…

First, I dispute that piracy is really better. Amazon and netflix generally work easier than piracy. My, um friend, has radarr + usenet + plex, and its work pretty well 80%. But subtitles are often a problem. Unpacking/par checking sometimes takes forever. Sometimes the decoder in plex doesn't really work. Sometimes the movie has been DMCA'd off the use net servers. Private trackers involve sucking up to to 15 year o…

There's a big range between generic streaming and setting up all those usenet (which is probably the most complicated of them all).

Something like https://put.io/ is far easier while still providing all the control you need over files and usually makes them available instantly.

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