Comment by threepipeproblm | Hacker News Reader

Comment by threepipeproblm | Hacker News Reader

threepipeproblm

I recently started moving away from Dropbox after realizing I am not comfortable with how aggressive and anti-user this software is.

Last year the story broke about very questionable tactics of Dropbox Mac to gain root access.

This year I had a client whose machine was crippled because of a fun Dropbox default where, upon inserting any USB device Dropbox will automatically copy. The user inserted a camera with 4GB of hunting pics and it basically downed his machine. Now maybe he clicked on something to technically approve of this. But I surveyed the user base whom I had asked to install Dropbox and more than one had experienced a problem with this "feature". In one case the employee almost got in trouble for personal use of a machine, because she had connected her phone and didn't realize all her personal pictures were copied there. Less savvy users were involved, but I need to feel comfortable recommending a product like this to less savvy users.

I don't see how it's questionable. They did it to improve the user experience. If anything blame the OS for providing the ability to set it up properly.

I doubt most people are comfortable with deception around root access, in order to have a better user experience.

This is evidenced by the fact that Dropbox felt the need to apologize and alter their behavior. Largely through HN activism BTW https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/09/dropbox-responds-to-accusa...

Most people have no idea what root access mean.

They explaining themselves is not evidence of what at all.

Did you read the part of the statement where they promised to make changes to the application disclosures?

Characterizing typical users as unable to understand rooting sidesteps the point that, when the concept is explained to them, most will not be comfortable with software companies doing this.

yes I did and no it doesn't actually sidestep it as the claim was that most people would be upset about it which is simply wrong as they don't even know it's an issue. If you want to see evidence of that then look at their current numbers.

I definitely should have used the subjunctive case there, but I was addressing an HN audience who does get it. A charitable reader might have responded to the gist of the criticism.

Are you suggesting that because many of Dropbox's users don't know about the rooting thing, it's justified by their expansion?

I think the important thing is that, were most users to understand the rooting issue, they would be upset. Most users could easily understand it, if explained clearly. This is likely why Dropbox didn't disclose at all until caught -- and now, presumably, has a techie-sounding disclosure instead of "can we 0wn your machine?", if they are even still doing this on Macs.

This goes along with my original complaint about Dropbox: defaults that are ostensibly in Dropbox's interest, but not users'.

I am suggesting that the rooting was to improve the user experience and that only technical savy people really care about it.

The potential security issue isn't big enough to claim it's a problem compared to making it easy to use for most people.

That withstanding, what's your core threat model? The DB has network access and filesystem read and write access already.

On most macs I suspect there is one user -- so there isn't that much difference between user access and root access, either way you can read my web history and all my e-mails.

How did 4GB of stored pictures cripple his machine?

'Cripple' is probably an exaggeration, I wasn't there (just got the angry phone call) but I believe it was a combination of two factors. First his machine not having a huge amount of breathing room with HD space. Second, the "magic" automated, slow file transfer made his machine unavailable for manual use. But at some point he started to point the finger at Dropbox, started plugging and unplugging the device (have you tried turning it on and off again?). This was a quite smart person who was not computer savvy. I think he was trying to manually transfer a few photos to his PC. I get it... something he used to be able to do for himself stopped working, and until he figured out what was going on, effectively locked up his machine.

If you take this in the context of what others have said about Dropbox's takeover of CPU, hopefully my use of 'cripple' makes sense...

I have rarely seen cases where "magic behaviors" that users don't understand work really well.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com