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How to terminate your worst enemy's Dropbox account for only $795

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Re: How to terminate your worst enemy's Dropbox account for only $795

#71

Post by mnutt »

xoail wrote: post #6

I can imagine why it is so hard to roll back to your old account once you leave a team. It might be best for companies to advise their employees to create separate dropbox account before joining a team.

I originally signed up into our dropbox team account with my personal account. At some point dropbox emailed me and effectively said "hey, not a great idea to have your personal account merged with your team account." They had an interface for me to select which files were personal files and split those back out into my personal account. Overall it was a pretty smooth process, since at the time I had pretty much accepted that there was no going back.

Re: How to terminate your worst enemy's Dropbox account for only $795

#72

Post by kamjam »

justinschuh wrote: post #50
Yoni1 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's good personal advice - but it's not really a solution to the problem for everyone.

It's really the only solution if you want to maintain some degree of personal privacy, and don't want to incur all your employer's liability on your personal account (and vice versa).

That's largely going to depend on where you live and the laws of that place. Remember, it's a worldwide market these days!

Re: How to terminate your worst enemy's Dropbox account for only $795

#73

Post by mblake »

Yoni1 wrote: post #69
mblake wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad design most likely. Looking more carefully at the link in the initial email they sent you: 'confirm_migrate?'. This almost gives it away.

I didn't even notice that until now, and definitely not when I originally clicked the link :)

I feel for you. Internet hugs!

Re: How to terminate your worst enemy's Dropbox account for only $795

#74

Post by natural219 »

neya wrote: post #52
natural219 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a place for public notices of foul play by companies, certainly. Normally, though, those accounts garner my sympathy when they explain the full support story and get snubbed by a represenative, usually after at least some waiting. Not saying that the OP didn't wait plenty of time, but I would find his complaint more compelling if he would have mentioned how long ago he contacted them.

I presume you are a dropbox employee. You seem to be staunchly defending dropbox to everyone who argues in support of this 'issue'.

I actually dislike Dropbox immensely, but thanks for presuming.

Re: How to terminate your worst enemy's Dropbox account for only $795

#75

Post by tomcorrigan »

rgarcia wrote: post #64
justinschuh wrote: post #17

Intermingling personal and work accounts is almost always a bad idea. I've seen colleagues get their personal accounts subpoenaed, have a firing result in loss of primary email/cell, or have really awkward communications show up in an IT audit. The overhead of maintaining separate accounts is very small (multi-profile browser, multi-account smartphone, etc.), and more than worth it given the liabilities. Beyond that,…

The overhead of maintaining separate Dropbox accounts is pretty high IMO. There's no easy way to switch between accounts on the desktop client, an I'm pretty sure there's no way to be logged in to multiple accounts.

This is the thing that is holding me back from embracing dropbox with open arms. I of course have separate accounts for work (2 jobs, 2 accounts) and a third private account. I don't mix the data on the for the reasons that the top poster listed. If there was a convenient way to sync all three through the desktop client I would be overjoyed in much the same way I was when gmail/google apps allowed multiple sign ins.

Re: How to terminate your worst enemy's Dropbox account for only $795

#76

Post by danso »

devgutt wrote: post #61
danso wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, I prefer this be resolved in the public arena, rather than on a case-by-case basis for everyone who encounters this problem. If the OP is accurate, then this is a problematic implementation detail that every corporate user should be aware of.

Don't you think that the great majority of the problems should be solved publicly? Unless the problem has sensitive data I think there's no reason to use a one-to-one support channel.

In the OP's case, where the unexpected feature was already officially alluded to, sure. But I think there are probably some unintentional security holes in which it's probably prudent to use a private channel first, and then after it's been fixed or a reasonable amount of time, disclose the problem. The problem, IMO, is worth disclosing publicly even after it's been fixed because it may be indicative of problematic internal practices that may require public scrutiny (or humiliation) to actually fix.

Re: How to terminate your worst enemy's Dropbox account for only $795

#77

Post by keithpeter »

geofft wrote: post #20
Yoni1 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think making a new account just for your Teams access is very convenient. The desktop application is only associated with 1 account at a time. So (until Dropbox changes something) there does not seem to be a good solution to your question.

Have your startup get you a separate computer. Not mixing work and personal life extends to not doing work development on your personal machine or vice versa.

Dual boot? e.g. Windows/Corporate style Linux for work and Ubuntu/MacOS for home?

Re: How to terminate your worst enemy's Dropbox account for only $795

#78

Post by larrys »

pearkes wrote: post #35
justinschuh wrote: post #17

Intermingling personal and work accounts is almost always a bad idea. I've seen colleagues get their personal accounts subpoenaed, have a firing result in loss of primary email/cell, or have really awkward communications show up in an IT audit. The overhead of maintaining separate accounts is very small (multi-profile browser, multi-account smartphone, etc.), and more than worth it given the liabilities. Beyond that,…

I recently bought a second laptop for home, even though it was common at the company I work for to use your computer for work and pleasure. Under California employment law, an employer can argue that they own anything created on company machines[1]. If you work on side projects, I think it's a worthy investment. [1] http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/19422/if-im-working-...

"I recently bought a second laptop for home, even though it was common at the company I work for to use your computer for work and pleasure."

Another option is to make your work laptop dual boot - either with the internal drive (partition) or with a portable external drive.

If you have to return the laptop (with the internal drive partitioned) you can wipe that partition. Not necessary with the external drive option.

For a practical matter (even under california employment law) they aren't going to know that you are doing this.

Re: How to terminate your worst enemy's Dropbox account for only $795

#79

Post by kamjam »

SquareWheel wrote: post #58
niggler wrote: post #13

This is why I never trust services like Dropbox. It's painful to maintain backups manually but at least I can sleep well at night knowing that the only points of failure are within my control EDIT: because I realize its not completely obvious, I keep multiple backups with my own servers sitting in different data centers. I don't see how you could trust any external service to store data.

Are the backups local? You can't prevent against a flood, fire, or theft. Are the backups off-site? You can't protect against a company going bankrupt, somebody cutting the wrong wire, or your ISP farting. Backups should be both local and off-site. Which is what Dropbox provides, actually.

but at least I can sleep well at night knowing that the only points of failure are within my control

Hahaha, when he said that I immediately thought I'd like to see him control flood, fire, theft or "other acts of god". Like you say, backups need to be local and off-site. No single point of failure, that is the key!

Re: How to terminate your worst enemy's Dropbox account for only $795

#80

Post by obviouslygreen »

jevinskie wrote: post #60
pearkes wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently bought a second laptop for home, even though it was common at the company I work for to use your computer for work and pleasure. Under California employment law, an employer can argue that they own anything created on company machines[1]. If you work on side projects, I think it's a worthy investment. [1] http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/19422/if-im-working-...

Careful! I believe they can still claim any work that is related to the company's field. Or is that just something that is commonly included in employment contracts?

I recall this being present in IT contracts at least ten years ago, but some time around then people figured it out and started insisting on removing that section... though I actually personally saw something like this for the first time just last week. Fortunately, a client had just sent me the wrong form, but there's no way I would have signed it. It's just a matter of carefully reading contracts and making sure you know what you're getting yourself into.
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