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End of the road for Google Drive in Transmit

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Re: End of the road for Google Drive in Transmit

#91

Post by callalex »

quantadev wrote: post #74
mullingitover wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sometimes companies have even been destroyed, notably by Amazon, for having the wrong political viewpoints. Ok, I'll ask: what company did Amazon destroy for having the wrong political viewpoint? AWS hosts some pretty vile stuff without blinking. The last time a company made a big "woe is me, my ideas are being suppressed" claim against Amazon, it was Parler, and they weren't kicked off for their viewpoints. They w…

[flagged]

Can you provide specific examples of censorship based on Republican political views? I haven’t experienced that on the platforms you mentioned.

Re: End of the road for Google Drive in Transmit

#92

Post by whalesalad »

I don't use Google Drive and probably never will but FWIW Transmit is still one of the best all-around data transfer apps that exist. I always miss it when I am on my Linux workstation. Being able to quickly connect to an S3 bucket and dump files and edit their permissions is a huge plus. Not to mention basic SFTP access like Cyberduck or Filezilla would do. I have never regretted my purchase of Transmit, it's great!

Re: End of the road for Google Drive in Transmit

#93

Post by tlogan »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #24

I wrote this response to another front page HN article on a similar topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41664753 I know everyone loves to dunk on Google, and I definitely agree their communication and customer service to app developers is shite, but this change to permissions scope is a good thing. If you have full, unfettered access to large number of people's Google Drive data, you're a huge target for male…

The problem with Google’s security certifications, especially when compared to competitors like Salesforce and Microsoft, is how disorganized the process is. While these companies all require security reviews, Google’s approach seems particularly disorganized: if something goes wrong, there’s almost no one to contact for help.

The certifications themselves are valuable, but Google’s main issue lies in its poor communication and support. Third-party developers, even those paying $60k annually for re-certification, struggle to get timely responses or any at all.

What’s ironic is that the very partners handling these certifications often avoid using Google themselves because it’s “unreliable if something unusual happens.”

And that’s the crux of the issue—when things do go wrong or something unusual happens, it’s incredibly difficult to resolve.

Re: End of the road for Google Drive in Transmit

#94

Post by sam_lowry_ »

closeparen wrote: post #89
imhoguy wrote: post #51

As per mentioned Ghisler page: "The security assessment would have to be performed by a specialized company, and costs up to $75'000 per year and program (so $150'000 for 32bit+64-bit). This is not sustainable even with a subscription." [0] This is death kiss to indie developement. But paradoxically it is great. Killing interoperability is nail to coffin. This brings more and more focus to alternative solutions out o…

This is what everyone said they wanted after Cambridge Analytica! For platforms to exercise due diligence before allowing users to delegate their access to third parties.

Before Cambridge Analytica I could get language stats for Belgium down to municipalities.

These are illegal otherwise, but very useful for journalists reporting on political matters.

Re: End of the road for Google Drive in Transmit

#95

Post by cyberax »

quantadev wrote: post #9

Never hitch your wagon to somebody else's horse. Entire companies have been destroyed because they rely on Amazon, Google, or some other service, and then have the rug pulled. Sometimes companies have even been destroyed, notably by Amazon, for having the wrong political viewpoints. My rule of thumb is: Only use open source components, and only run my stuff on Linux. So that way I maintain full control over my stack,…

> Entire companies have been destroyed because they rely on Amazon

I assume the retail side, not the AWS?

Re: End of the road for Google Drive in Transmit

#96

Post by xyst »

> we would now have to pay one of Google’s business partners to conduct the review

This is straight out of the IBM playbook. Did Google pick up some IBM flunkies recently?

What a terrible business practice. This was a company that once proudly displayed the motto, “don’t be evil” and even proved itself in various situations. Those days are long gone as the company is filled with more brain dead, unimaginative MBA flunkies.

Re: End of the road for Google Drive in Transmit

#97

Post by csinode »

closeparen wrote: post #89
imhoguy wrote: post #51

As per mentioned Ghisler page: "The security assessment would have to be performed by a specialized company, and costs up to $75'000 per year and program (so $150'000 for 32bit+64-bit). This is not sustainable even with a subscription." [0] This is death kiss to indie developement. But paradoxically it is great. Killing interoperability is nail to coffin. This brings more and more focus to alternative solutions out o…

This is what everyone said they wanted after Cambridge Analytica! For platforms to exercise due diligence before allowing users to delegate their access to third parties.

Wasn't a significant part of the Cambridge Analytica scandal that Facebook gave them access to user data _without_ the user's consent?

Re: End of the road for Google Drive in Transmit

#98

Post by Moto7451 »

mullingitover wrote: post #20
quantadev wrote: post #9

Never hitch your wagon to somebody else's horse. Entire companies have been destroyed because they rely on Amazon, Google, or some other service, and then have the rug pulled. Sometimes companies have even been destroyed, notably by Amazon, for having the wrong political viewpoints. My rule of thumb is: Only use open source components, and only run my stuff on Linux. So that way I maintain full control over my stack,…

> Sometimes companies have even been destroyed, notably by Amazon, for having the wrong political viewpoints. Ok, I'll ask: what company did Amazon destroy for having the wrong political viewpoint? AWS hosts some pretty vile stuff without blinking. The last time a company made a big "woe is me, my ideas are being suppressed" claim against Amazon, it was Parler, and they weren't kicked off for their viewpoints. They w…

I don’t know about the political stuff that poster is talking about but this is true for quite a few small stores that transitioned to mail order as Amazon really took off. If you couldn’t handle complaints quickly enough or had too many flagged listings (stuff Amazon didn’t want to allow on the platform for one reason or another) you could get kicked off without much recourse except trying to open a new account and hope you were not caught.

You could see this as good for the consumer in cases where the abuse is bad but the store I was at in the 00s got kicked off for selling some Martial Arts equipment legal in 47 States but on a naughty list we were unaware of. We listed it in a few colors and that was enough to get kicked out.

Re: End of the road for Google Drive in Transmit

#99

Post by joshuamorton »

acdha wrote: post #55
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #24

I wrote this response to another front page HN article on a similar topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41664753 I know everyone loves to dunk on Google, and I definitely agree their communication and customer service to app developers is shite, but this change to permissions scope is a good thing. If you have full, unfettered access to large number of people's Google Drive data, you're a huge target for male…

That seems like a poor argument for an app which doesn’t mirror data or accept commands remotely (if I can control your app on your device, I can control the official Google Drive app) but there is a general point about full drive access. However, I think the answer there is for Google to improve the security model for Drive - for example, allow the user to select a non-root folder which Transmit or iA Writer can use…

> However, I think the answer there is for Google to improve the security model for Drive - for example, allow the user to select a non-root folder which Transmit or iA Writer can use and have some UI indicating that it’s shared.

The oauth scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file [0]basically allows this. If memory serves the app can use this scope, create a folder, and have access to things within that folder, it can certainly have access to all files created via the app (which should in general be true for iA and probably also Transmit). Offhand, I don't actually see what iA or Transmit are doing that needs the broader scope, though TotalCommander, trying to be a replacement file manager would still need the biggest scopes.

[0]: See https://developers.google.com/drive/api/guides/api-specific-..., the drive.file scope is non-sensitive so it needs a much more cursory approval process

Re: End of the road for Google Drive in Transmit

#100

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

tlogan wrote: post #93
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #24

I wrote this response to another front page HN article on a similar topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41664753 I know everyone loves to dunk on Google, and I definitely agree their communication and customer service to app developers is shite, but this change to permissions scope is a good thing. If you have full, unfettered access to large number of people's Google Drive data, you're a huge target for male…

The problem with Google’s security certifications, especially when compared to competitors like Salesforce and Microsoft, is how disorganized the process is. While these companies all require security reviews, Google’s approach seems particularly disorganized: if something goes wrong, there’s almost no one to contact for help. The certifications themselves are valuable, but Google’s main issue lies in its poor commun…

100% agree. Again, my position is that Google rightfully deserves all the criticism they get around communication and customer support. I just think it's a mistake to confuse that criticism with Google's change to enforce better security for highly sensitive permission scopes.
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