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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

#51
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i switched to microsoft 1Drive a long time ago, works seamlessly on windows

I am repeating myself from another thread but I'm 90% sure of the answer and no-one checks: are you sure OneDrive works well? Can you sync PST files? [1] [1] https://www.eejournal.com/article/onedrive-down-the-road-to-...

I haven't had problems with files , but that might be just me. I had an issue in the past that it would crash . i removed and reinstalled and it s fixed now

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

#52

I recently moved away from Dropbox due to its increasing hostility. I am currently evaluating pCloud, though I am not sure they are the one I want to go with: They have some severe problems with consistency across syncs and they allow themselves to push advertisement through their desktop apps ie. they are highly intrusive. I guess I will give them the year I paid for and then move on.

I tried about half a dozen cloud backup solutions and Dropbox, so far, is the only one who can deliver the only thing that matters to me: Consistency. Dropbox actually works and it works well. It can handle suddenly having thousands of tiny text files, it can handle a 5GB PDF, it handles foreign letters in file names and it has a sane way of determining which file version is the current one when switching between platforms.

It gives me cold sweat to read headlines like this since there aren't enough alternatives to Dropbox that "just work". Similar to what happens to Apple. I have no idea why Dropbox is fucking around with their shit so much. I'd happily pay a dollar more here and there (and they just increased pricing!), just don't do bullshit in the background.

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

#53

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…

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).

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

#54

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…

> they just couldn't grok the reason It's hard to make someone understand something when their salary (and entire reputation - given that increasing engagement/retention by X% is a big selling point on a resume) depends on not understanding it.

Yes, but usually in that situation, the misunderstanding is intentional. This seemed a genuine inability to understand why I would quit over "a simple upsell".

I am sure the inability to understand that it was a dark pattern to have no [X] or [SKIP] button was intentional :-)

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

#55
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 location have.

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

#56
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 "…

You could check MIUI or Realme which already has that feature.

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

#57
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 "…

iOS almost allows this for geo-location nowadays, where one can pick whether to give ones exact position or a much less exact position, and for photos where one can select exactly what photos the app should get access to.

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

#58
post #10

Hmm. My Dropbox Pro subscription renewal is coming up. Is there an alternative to Dropbox that isn't iCloud or Google Drive? I would like to pay for Tarsnap but I don't understand 250 picodollars / byte-month.

250 picodollars / byte-month is $3000/TB/yr, which is very expensive even compared to the already expensive S3 (~$276/TB/yr).

For reference, HDDs cost ~$20/TB, so you could buy a new HDD every 2.5 days for the cost of storing the data on tarsnap.

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

#59
post #46
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like https://tresorit.com . It's end to end encrypted. Doesn't work as smoothly as Dropbox, but worth it IMO.

Yah, looked at it too. Still thinking if E2EE is worth losing search and OCR.

Which search would you lose? Their iOS app has search, and on macOS your can use Finder’s search. I assume there’d be ways on Android, Windows and Linux as well.

Actually, I just checked and their Mac and web apps also have search.

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

#60

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…

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.
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