The overwhelming sentiments of comments on this is negative, but as a fairly non-technical audience far removed from ML, I find this pretty fascinating.
As a technical user, I get why people are concerned. As someone that's seen this movie before, I tend to think that Dropbox has a better handle on what nontechnical users want than HN does.
Yes, it's possible to do such indexing. They can also start running facial recognition software like Facebook does. What's going to happening next with all the data they collect? Doesn't take a pessimistic coder to know, any layperson should be able to figure this out.
A company builds a new feature, it's useful, and even more they write a detailed article about how they built it. Isn't it fair to appreciate that and discuss the approach?
I get it, there are some issues with Dropbox, etc. but must every article about some company feature have a majority of comments talk about how they liked them better in the past, how they wanna stop using it, how environmentally problematic some of the company products are, and the likes? I think there's also a time and place to discuss those (e.g. on comments for an article about the business practices, or some medium opinion piece), but I'd prefer on submissions like this one we focus on the content at hand, and maybe have a single comment thread only dedicated to tangential issues about the company.
EDIT: TBF, I don't actually see that much unrelated negativity in this comment section.
Yes.
Third Party Doctrine says that anyone who stores information with third parties has no legal expectation of privacy. Technically, law enforcement can request the person's data without the person's consent or even knowledge.
Combine that with most people's phones automatically upload the pictures and videos they take.
Combine those with this analysis and law enforcement can start fishing expeditions with little to no effort.
The only thing standing between individuals and law enforcement having deep access to much of our information is the kindness of the tech companies holding the information. Great.
At some point it's just tiring to be a user that is continuously jerked around. I love tech, but everyday I understand the libre hermit POV more.
I'm stating a fact of this tech forum.
> Users don't even know that they are giving up privacy.
lol, Do you think the users care about privacy on Dropbox. The tech boffins might, but not the average user.
How have you been spied on as a Dropbox user? Can you do a better service than them? What alternative do you suggest that is in the same league as Dropbox?
And I'm stating facts about Dropbox. Users are not told that their data will be looked at by others. Having the keys to do it and actually doing it are two very different things.
Why are you asking all of these questions about the current market? Are you just trying to point out how bad the current situation is? If so, then I agree. That's why I and other users here paying attention are doling out criticism.
OK, but so what?
Again the tech boffins would care about this enough to take action on this 'issue'.
You can always move your files away from Dropbox if you don't like it, I'm sure companies who are collecting information on you (name, email, browser, file_id) are doing this to improve the service that you've signed their TOS with.
> I love tech, but everyday I understand the libre hermit POV more.
Then don't use Dropbox or similar services then, it's that simple. There is always an SFTP/Rsync server waiting for you to upload your files on, or better yet for your usecase, an encrypted USB drive.