i've had the same issue with PayPal
i created an account when i was 16 or something, but never used it before 18
after age verification they suspended my account, but allowed to move funds to a new account with other e-mail address
Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account
41–50 of 101 posts
Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
OK but if you read the link you included WW specifically MADE an app for children and collected the data: "the agency... marketed a weight loss app for use by children as young as eight and then collected their personal information without parental permission." That is pretty wilful -- so we can be confident they have or had data targeted from children. Dropbox on the other hand -- I'm not sure how that case is simil…
If you read the link at the link, they specifically call out maintaining accounts of kids who revised their birthdate below the limit, and for encouraging kids to lie by stating they had to be at least 13. > Are children now allowed to use cloud backup services? Why wouldn't they? It's basically a service for storing personal information, so probably not without parental consent.
> It's basically a service for storing personal information, so probably not without parental consent.
I'm not sure I see the logic there. The previous poster who said in the US children under 13 are not allowed to have online accounts makes more sense legally.
Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account
#43For those of you in need of an immediate drop-in replacement that won't tie you to an organization which will do the same thing a decade from now: Syncthing[1] is awesome. It's all FOSS, peer to peer, you're limited by your own hardware and network, and it uses PKI instead of some central auth service. The only reason I don't use it anymore is because I've switched to git for all my textfiles and rsync (lol I know) f…
What's wrong with using rsync for that?
Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
What should be the lowest valid date of birth? Is there some universal standard? I know it feels like 4 months is quite young, but where would you draw the line?
At least in the US, I don't believe you're supposed to use the internet unless you're 13 or older. You could start there for your dropdown.
My kid made a presentation for his class using Google Docs, then filled in his day of birth on his new phone when setting it up, then got locked out of his account. He was 12 at the time.
Also, his class had a WhatsApp group chat in which school info was shared. This was kind of weird because it meant that all 12 year olds in the group must have cheated their dates of birth, because otherwise they could not have had a WhatsApp account
Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account
#45If you made an account at any digital service before you turned 13 make a new one. I got a google account banned because I needed to update my date of birth and at the time I would not have been allowed to sign up.
Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account
#46For those of you in need of an immediate drop-in replacement that won't tie you to an organization which will do the same thing a decade from now: Syncthing[1] is awesome. It's all FOSS, peer to peer, you're limited by your own hardware and network, and it uses PKI instead of some central auth service. The only reason I don't use it anymore is because I've switched to git for all my textfiles and rsync (lol I know) f…
What's wrong with using rsync for that?
Nothing. But rsync isn't in the same space that syncthing is trying to do.
It's like comparing `scp` to something like `sshfs` mounted to a shared folder, and having an algorithm to handle file conflicts.
I'm a heavy syncthing user, but still do rsync to deploy changes to my personal VPS because I don't need any of that.
Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account
#47I found a Dropbox alternative: https://nextcloud.com/ I'm never going back. Way better in every aspect than Dropbox.
Nextcloud is not an alternative to Dropbox. Dropbox is a cloud storage provider, and Nextcloud is a software that runs on a cloud server. One you pay for the storage upfront and Dropbox provides some redundancy of the data. With Nextcloud, you could set it up on a single service with no redundancy and easily lose all your data, plus there is administration and maintenance costs.
You can sign up to many different Nextcloud providers https://nextcloud.com/signup/
NextCloud also sells a device with it preinstalled and easy to use
Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account
#48I found a Dropbox alternative: https://nextcloud.com/ I'm never going back. Way better in every aspect than Dropbox.
Nextcloud is not an alternative to Dropbox. Dropbox is a cloud storage provider, and Nextcloud is a software that runs on a cloud server. One you pay for the storage upfront and Dropbox provides some redundancy of the data. With Nextcloud, you could set it up on a single service with no redundancy and easily lose all your data, plus there is administration and maintenance costs.
to add, even if you pay for someone else to host it, you still have to manage it to some degree, unlike dropbox/syncthing.
Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account
#49I've been seeing age checks like this more and more. Recently the FTC came down hard[0] on Kurbo (aka Weight Watchers) for not doing enough/anything to stop children under 13 (COPPA) from making accounts. Since they're not confident there's no children with accounts, now all Kurbo's data is tainted and they have to delete all user data and destroy any "algorithms" derived from that data. Historically Dropbox probably…
IANAL, but my understanding is that nothing in COPPA prevents children under 13 from making accounts or using Internet services. If this were true, Roblox would not exist. COPPA only limits collection of children's personal information. A company that says COPPA prevents them from allowing children to use their services really just doesn't want to go through the effort of not collecting that personal information. So, instead they throw up their hands and just blanket forbid children under 13 from signing up, to avoid having to comply with the law. But, this is their own policy, not anything mandated by COPPA.
Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you read the link at the link, they specifically call out maintaining accounts of kids who revised their birthdate below the limit, and for encouraging kids to lie by stating they had to be at least 13. > Are children now allowed to use cloud backup services? Why wouldn't they? It's basically a service for storing personal information, so probably not without parental consent.
> It's basically a service for storing personal information, so probably not without parental consent. I'm not sure I see the logic there. The previous poster who said in the US children under 13 are not allowed to have online accounts makes more sense legally.
Children can obtain parental consent for some online accounts, if the site supports it. Ex. Microsoft -
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/parental...