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Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account

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Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account

#61

Post by encryptluks2 »

mybhslaptop wrote: post #47
encryptluks2 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Those providers aren't competitive in pricing with Dropbox, and even if you have a device with it preinstalled, you are limited to whatever redundancy is built into the box and configuring security/firewall rules, etc. Plus, a lot of residential broadband services limit upload speed substantially, so if you're restoring offsite it could take a very long time.

Dropbox at least has some resiliency distributed across multiple servers.

Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account

#62

Post by em-bee »

__david__ wrote: post #34
jrockway wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always like to see how old I can make myself. 1902? (The 2038 problem in reverse.) 1776? 5 B.C.? My experience is that I can usually only go back to the 1930s.

Ha, I do that as well. They're almost always menus and so I just pick the bottom-most box. Steam thinks I'm 120 years old.

i wonder though if doing that doesn't risk detection since it's pretty obviously false.

Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account

#63

Post by djrogers »

tpxl wrote: post #15
dragonwriter wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The age verification feature is for COPPA compliance, but I’d really like to see the provision that prevents correcting errors.

They will correct errors, after you give them a bunch of document scans or a credit card. I wasn't willing to provide that to a random foreign company for a free service, I just moved to Discord.

> to a random foreign company

Fair enough, but I’m not sure Microsoft could be described as a ‘random company’

Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account

#65

Post by smittywerben »

xeromal wrote: post #11
globular-toast wrote: post #7

Earlier 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.

I hear platforms ban < 13yo due to cost of compliance. Is this true? It was simple on Neopets when COPPA was new - just faxed a signed parental consent form so I could access the forums.

Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account

#66

Post by falcolas »

exfascist wrote: post #19

For 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…

One feature of Dropbox I take shameless advantage of is sharing files (not pirated material, FWIW) via a link. Suggestions on a replacement for that, since Syncthing can't do that?

Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account

#67

Post by kingcharles »

kissgyorgy wrote: post #24

I found a Dropbox alternative: https://nextcloud.com/ I'm never going back. Way better in every aspect than Dropbox.

Spent several minutes trying to find the price. It's hidden under the "Support" menu for no reason that makes sense.

Looks like it starts at €3600 per year for the basic plan, but you can't buy it, you have to "get an offer" which is newspeak for have a salesperson call you for several hours to upsell you.

Definitely not a replacement for my $14/month Dropbox account.

Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account

#68

Post by kingcharles »

thefifthsetpin wrote: post #56

I did the same thing the other day setting up an iphone. I went back to fix my birthdate, but it prevented me for a while, telling me that my real birthdate was "invalid" or some such, and that I should try again later. Eventually, enough time passed that my birthdate became valid and I was able to proceed. It was annoying, but honestly it was probably less annoying than coding that onboarding screen must have been.

1. Accidentally enter invalid birth date

2. Refresh page for the next 15 years until birth date is valid

Re: Tell HN: Dropbox user age verification feature can lock your account

#70

Post by exfascist »

falcolas wrote: post #66
exfascist wrote: post #19

For 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…

One feature of Dropbox I take shameless advantage of is sharing files (not pirated material, FWIW) via a link. Suggestions on a replacement for that, since Syncthing can't do that?

ipfs + the cloudflare gateway is great for that, I use it for sharing files here. You don't even have to install anything and can use EG: https://anarkrypto.github.io/upload-files-to-ipfs-from-brows...
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