[HN Gopher] Dropbox: How to opt out of 3rd party AI partner acce...
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       Dropbox: How to opt out of 3rd party AI partner access to your
       Dropbox
        
       Author : tosh
       Score  : 228 points
       Date   : 2023-12-13 16:44 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (twitter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
        
       | mtmail wrote:
       | It was switched-off for me (based in Europe).
       | 
       | Edit: based on their help page "In countries with the preferred
       | language set to English. Excluding Canada, the UK (United
       | Kingdom), and countries within the EEA (European Economic Area)."
       | https://help.dropbox.com/view-edit/privacy-settings-dropbox-...
        
         | jotaen wrote:
         | Thanks for posting that link, that sheds a lot of light on this
         | topic.
         | 
         | I'm also in the EU, and the button was switched off for me too.
        
       | jeffbee wrote:
       | I think this should be switched off, and against the law, but the
       | tweet is hyperbolic. It specifically states that the data is not
       | for training.
        
         | rchaud wrote:
         | So? What is preventing the company from just using it anyway
         | and paying a fine later? The culture of these growthmaxxing
         | companies pretty much ensures a philosophy of "don't ask for
         | permission, ask for forgiveness".
        
       | accrual wrote:
       | I didn't see the setting in my Dropbox account. Maybe because I
       | have "Early access" disabled? Either way, not a fan of an opt-in
       | setting that shares your data when it's supposed to just be a
       | place to store files.
       | 
       | > Get access to products and features that Dropbox is still
       | testing and evaluating, and give feedback to help our product
       | teams build the best final product.
        
       | bluetidepro wrote:
       | Just turned it off in my account, appreciate the heads up/post. I
       | can't stand when companies turn this type of thing "on" by
       | default. Apple pulled the same thing with advertising settings a
       | few iOS versions back.
        
         | chankstein38 wrote:
         | Right? I "understand" it but I don't understand it. It just
         | ends up being gross and shady feeling and giving me a negative
         | impression of the company that did it. I use dropbox, pay for
         | the upgraded storage, and have for years. I love it. But they
         | added some AI and decided I automatically wanted it. Makes me
         | question whether I want to continue to be loyal to them.
        
         | schaefer wrote:
         | I didn't hear about that one. How can I check the new settings
         | in my Apple account?
        
           | bluetidepro wrote:
           | It was back in 2018 or 2019, I believe. I THINK it was maybe
           | iOS 15? Here is an old Verge article I found that you can
           | check your settings: https://www.theverge.com/22309965/block-
           | ad-iphone-data-how-t... - It was turning off "Personalized
           | Ads" in your settings. I believe today in iOS 17 it lives in
           | `Settings > Privacy > Apple Advertising`
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | why do you trust that the setting does anything?
        
         | tmpz22 wrote:
         | > I can't stand when companies turn this type of thing "on" by
         | default.
         | 
         | If you _force_ people to do something they are more likely to
         | do it then if you don 't _force_ them. Especially if they don
         | 't consent to doing it.
        
         | seanhunter wrote:
         | Dropbox has form. The reason I shut my account is they used the
         | root permission you give when you install the package to give
         | back accessibility access permissions to their app after I had
         | turned them off. They then claimed (in a very mealy mouthed
         | reply) that this had been done because people turned these
         | permissions off by accident and so they were trying to be
         | helpful. Here's that thread for people who want the context
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12464730
        
       | nh2 wrote:
       | (How) Can I turn that off for the entire company account?
        
         | nh2 wrote:
         | Changing the setting redirects me to
         | "https://www.dropbox.com/team/admin/settings/ai" in the Admin
         | Console so I assume this controls it for the entire team.
        
       | vlovich123 wrote:
       | I can't seem to find this setting. Is it getting rolled out
       | slowly?
        
         | barbazoo wrote:
         | In Canada, I also couldn't find this setting.
        
           | bonestamp2 wrote:
           | In the US, not seeing this either. I do have a free account
           | though, not sure if that makes a difference.
        
           | uxjw wrote:
           | I'm in Canada and I had it. I'm on a paid account.
        
             | barbazoo wrote:
             | I stopped paying a long time ago before actually deleting
             | my account today. So maybe the setting was implicitly
             | turned on for non-paying customers. Wouldn't surprise me.
        
         | ahartman00 wrote:
         | US here, I can't see it either. I noticed the tweet mentions
         | European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), is this EU only?
        
         | AdamH12113 wrote:
         | My company is in the US. I just checked and found that we have
         | the setting in our admin console and it was on by default. We
         | do have a paid business account.
        
         | rytor718 wrote:
         | Try going to your account then from the menu go to Settings >
         | Third-party AI
         | 
         | Heres what the link looks like for me in the US:
         | https://www.dropbox.com/account/ai
         | 
         | Paid subscribers can see it in US, not sure whether it depends
         | on the subscription tier though.
        
         | anticensor wrote:
         | Not in Turkey either.
        
         | chankstein38 wrote:
         | I'm in the US on a paid account and I had it.
        
         | jansenmac wrote:
         | Im in the Netherlands and also dont see the setting. Using a
         | basic (free) account.
        
         | PeterisP wrote:
         | I don't have it (from EU), so this may be limited to a subset
         | of users, but in any case I believe that it would have to be
         | opt-in for EU users.
        
       | keyanp wrote:
       | This tweet is sort of misleading, the docs suggest this is
       | basically them using an API to provide AI features:
       | https://help.dropbox.com/view-edit/privacy-settings-dropbox-...
       | 
       | > Your files within Dropbox are sent to a third-party AI only
       | when you chose to interact with AI powered features. For example,
       | when you ask a question about a file.
        
         | tosh wrote:
         | > chose to interact with AI powered features
         | 
         | puts the burden on the user to understand what an "AI powered
         | feature" is
        
       | barbazoo wrote:
       | Reminded me to finally delete my account of... 15 years!!! Good
       | riddance.
        
       | wildpeaks wrote:
       | Direct link to the setting: https://www.dropbox.com/account/ai
        
         | wormius wrote:
         | just routes to /account/general for me, no ai, and no ai
         | options. strange.
        
           | EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote:
           | Same for me. Are you a free user too? Might be that only
           | Premium users get built in AI.
        
           | ragebol wrote:
           | Same for me? I'm in Europe, maybe that makes a difference
           | perhaps?
        
       | fredgrott wrote:
       | bad UI and company design...one should NEVER EVER cause any user
       | of any service to take extra actions to respect their rights and
       | data. It should be the reverse...if you want to use AI or have AI
       | use your data then you need to take extra steps...
       | 
       | This is dark patterns all over again
        
         | rchaud wrote:
         | Dropbox crossed the bad UI rubicon for me when it limited
         | upload speed on my free account to sub-dial up rates. This was
         | in 2012.
         | 
         | I just put everything in Google Drive and a USB stick and have
         | never looked at DB again.
        
           | thejohnconway wrote:
           | Limited your upload speed on a free account? I'd hardly call
           | that a dark pattern.
        
             | rchaud wrote:
             | The transfer speed is slower than using Bluetooth. Free
             | users would have dumped the tool immediately. What DB did
             | was throttle the speed only after I had uploaded a set of
             | files, and then bug me to upgrade to paid.
        
       | waynesonfire wrote:
       | It's not at all strange to me that Dropbox deployed this dark
       | pattern. What really stood out to me is that, this post was made
       | by the CTO of Amazon.
       | 
       | > did I agree to this somewhere?
       | 
       | The CTO of Amazon uses Dropbox?!
        
         | crop_rotation wrote:
         | Amazon has no competitive consumer product to dropbox, and he
         | rightfully might want to separate his work and personal data.
         | Can't really expect one to use S3 as a dropbox replacement.
        
           | dylan604 wrote:
           | Does Dropbox not use S3 as its backend? I would not be
           | shocked to learn that it does
        
             | ishanjain28 wrote:
             | perhaps you should be a little shocked to hear if they are
             | using s3(they are not). s3 is awesome but it's not supposed
             | to be used absolutely everywhere.
        
             | crop_rotation wrote:
             | Whether dropbox uses S3 or not is irrelevant. Dropbox and
             | equivalents are much higher level products not replaceable
             | with an object store.
        
           | waynesonfire wrote:
           | He is the CTO. He is in charge of Amazon Drive. He has the
           | authority to implement any missing feature for his use-case.
        
             | crop_rotation wrote:
             | Yes and as the CTO it is better to understand what products
             | make sense for Amazon customers and implement those,
             | instead of what he wants to use personally.
        
       | autoexec wrote:
       | People should be encrypting their files before uploading them to
       | the cloud. Then it won't matter who your data is shared with.
        
         | pbowyer wrote:
         | How would you recommend doing that in a transparent way on
         | MacOS/Windows/Linux?
        
           | chdlr wrote:
           | Something like Cryptomator (https://cryptomator.org/)
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | [dupe] / Related:
       | 
       |  _Dropbox is sharing your files with AI partners without opt-in_
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38627751
        
       | zffr wrote:
       | This is the description on Dropbox's website
       | 
       | > Use artificial intelligence (AI) from third-party partners so
       | you can work faster in Dropbox. We only use technology partners
       | we have vetted. Your data is never used to train their internal
       | models, and is deleted from third-party servers within 30 days.
        
       | AdamH12113 wrote:
       | For people who can't or won't access Twitter, the setting for
       | individual accounts is here:
       | 
       | https://www.dropbox.com/account/ai
       | 
       | and the setting for team accounts in the admin console is here:
       | 
       | https://www.dropbox.com/team/admin/settings/ai
       | 
       | Ours (for a US business account) was on by default. The text for
       | the setting is:
       | 
       | > _Let team members use artificial intelligence (AI) so they can
       | work faster in Dropbox. We only use technology partners we have
       | vetted. Your organization's data is never used to train their
       | internal models, and is deleted from third-party servers within
       | 30 days._
       | 
       | There's a "learn more" link that goes here:
       | 
       | https://help.dropbox.com/view-edit/privacy-settings-dropbox-...
       | 
       | Dropbox claims that they "won't let our third-party partners
       | train their models on our user data without consent". The page
       | further claims that the participation option is on by default for
       | teams "participating in the Dropbox AI alpha", but I don't think
       | we signed up for any such thing and the option was still on for
       | us. I checked the settings and we are not currently enrolled. I
       | have zero confidence that "consent" to use our data for model
       | training won't also default to opt-in.
       | 
       | The page further states that Dropbox currently has one AI partner
       | -- OpenAI.
        
         | jkaplowitz wrote:
         | I see no such setting, for my free personal account which is
         | currently overfull and not syncing due to having previously had
         | some temporary promotional space above my current limit. Is
         | this setting not present for everyone? If relevant, I am
         | currently in Germany, although my account was created in either
         | the US or Canada (I forget which).
        
           | toyg wrote:
           | I'm in UK and I also don't have it.
           | 
           | I suspect there is a Great Deal of Precautionary Rationale
           | (eh) protecting the Eurosphere from the worst privacy abuses.
        
             | rchaud wrote:
             | In the Twitter post the OP says he is based in the EU.
        
             | hysan wrote:
             | I'm in the US and don't see it either.
        
             | m4tthumphrey wrote:
             | I'm in the UK and I can see it. It was off.
        
             | mystcb wrote:
             | Oddly enough, I am in the UK - and I do have it, but it was
             | already turned off when I went there. I wonder if things
             | have changed, or there are some canary releases of the
             | box... or am I just completely unaware my account isn't
             | considered a UK-based account?
        
           | atomicfiredoll wrote:
           | I'm in the U.S. and don't see it on my free account either. I
           | also don't have early access features turned on, so I wonder
           | if it could be related to that. [Or, as is mentioned in some
           | other comments, maybe free accounts don't have the option
           | because they can't access AI powered features.]
        
         | Log_out_ wrote:
         | It has to be on initially for later plausible denial..
        
         | mbesto wrote:
         | To be fair to Dropbox that page also states:
         | 
         | > _" Your files within Dropbox are sent to a third-party AI
         | only when you chose to interact with AI powered features. For
         | example, when you ask a question about a file. "_
         | 
         | > _" If you or your team is participating in the Dropbox AI
         | alpha, the Third-party AI toggle in your account settings is
         | turned On by default. Only the content relevant to an explicit
         | request or command is sent to our third-party AI partners to
         | generate an answer, summary, or transcript."_
         | 
         | Basically, its saying "if you use AI tools, we'll send your
         | data to a 3p, but if you don't, we're not".
         | 
         | The issue really is if they turned on a feature in the future
         | "ask a question about this document" and you didn't know it
         | meant that the document was sent over to OpenAI.
        
       | hedora wrote:
       | Doing this without opt-in should be illegal.
       | 
       | We need blanket minimum privacy protections at a national level,
       | and they should treat internal repurposing of data the same as
       | third party sharing.
       | 
       | Since all major players in our industry have shown they can't be
       | trusted to curate large collections of sensitive data, inclusion
       | in such internal datasets should be opt in as well.
       | 
       | Dropbox is a poster child for "this should be E2E encrypted", so,
       | yes, I'm arguing they should get your explicit opt-in before they
       | are allowed to store unencrypted data or escrow keys on their
       | end, and that the opt-in shouldn't be required to use their
       | services.
        
         | VWWHFSfQ wrote:
         | > Dropbox is a poster child for "this should be E2E encrypted"
         | 
         | how would you implement some very trivial features like even
         | being able to search though
        
           | rvnx wrote:
           | At least basic encryption. Remember one day, Dropbox forgot
           | _in production_ to check passwords of users. So you only had
           | to enter email to access the Dropbox of the user (an open
           | "log as" feature).
        
             | YetAnotherNick wrote:
             | What do you mean by "basic encryption". Either dropbox
             | could access our files or it couldn't without
             | authentication from us. If it couldn't how would search or
             | indexing work.
        
             | ginsbergjason wrote:
             | Thats crazy, do you know if there's an article about
             | Dropbox breaking auth? Don't remember hearing about it.
        
               | rvnx wrote:
               | https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/dropbox-confirms-
               | security-...
        
           | ginsbergjason wrote:
           | we've implemented E2EE search (and pretty much every feature
           | you would expect) on https://skiff.com/drive
        
             | drstewart wrote:
             | are you pledging to make every new feature that's ever
             | developed opt-in on risk of jail time for you personally?
        
           | PeterisP wrote:
           | I've used Dropbox for 13 years and I have never noticed that
           | they have a cloud search feature, nor have I ever needed
           | that. It syncs to my machines where I have my local search
           | working in the exact same manner as for non-Dropbox data -
           | why does Dropbox need a special search, one where _they_
           | would search my unencrypted data?
        
       | Sirikon wrote:
       | Paying customer here: Mine was disabled, for the record.
        
         | mdswanson wrote:
         | For balance, paying customer here, and mine was enabled.
        
           | techwizrd wrote:
           | I'm a paying customer and mine was enabled as well, and this
           | is the first I'm even hearing about it. That's not a good
           | feeling.
        
       | amilich wrote:
       | It's enough of other companies making money on our data. That's
       | why I started Skiff (end-to-end encrypted
       | email/docs/drive/calendar)! It's harder to build products E2EE
       | but you get long-term trust from users.
        
       | veg wrote:
       | Correct me if I'm wrong but this seems like a poorly messaged
       | setting and an overreaction by users on X. Sounds like they will
       | use a commercial AI when you use Dropbox AI to ask about a
       | document.
        
         | wrs wrote:
         | Yes, specifically they use the OpenAI API to implement their
         | alpha AI features.
         | 
         | https://help.dropbox.com/view-edit/privacy-settings-dropbox-...
        
         | rchaud wrote:
         | In that case your organization account should make the decision
         | on enablinng this capability, Dropbox should not have carte
         | blanche to scan your content ahead of time.
        
       | Imnimo wrote:
       | The tweet seems to contradict the screenshot.
        
       | ginsbergjason wrote:
       | this kind of bullshit is why we started https://skiff.com/drive
        
         | shapenamer wrote:
         | I would like to check it out but I'm physically unable to
         | select any product from the product drop down list... Not the
         | most confidence inspiring thing I've seen.
        
           | ginsbergjason wrote:
           | Which browser are you using? Having trouble reproducing.
        
             | shapenamer wrote:
             | Firefox https://streamable.com/5omhv0
             | 
             | Maybe I'm an idiot but I literally can't navigate your
             | website lol.
        
         | rambambram wrote:
         | I rsync my files to a local drive and FTP it to something
         | remote, so no need for this. But I gotta say, that's a
         | beautiful website!
        
       | mrngm wrote:
       | Logged into Dropbox to see (EU based). Setting wasn't there.
       | Clicking through to the quoted tweet, they also report further on
       | in their thread: _I created the account when I was in the US, but
       | now in the EU._
       | (https://twitter.com/Werner/status/1734898806708166709)
       | 
       | In the "What's new" part within the Dropbox environment, I did
       | find a note dated October 10, 2023:
       | 
       |  _Quickly find the content you need with Dropbox AI_
       | 
       |  _Dropbox AI for search helps you get the information you need
       | without the hassle of manually searching through Dropbox. Ask a
       | question about your Dropbox content and get a response within
       | seconds. You can also find the files you need with everyday
       | language instead of searching by keywords, and search results now
       | come with a brief summary of each file._
       | 
       |  _Then, once you've opened individual files, Dropbox AI for file
       | previews now lets you save time and effort by summarizing your
       | content, from long documents to lengthy videos, into a clear and
       | concise explanation with the click of a button._
       | 
       |  _Dropbox AI is currently in alpha and available in the US in EN
       | only for Dropbox Pro, Standard, Advanced, Essentials, Business,
       | and Business Plus. Some features may be available soon for
       | eligible non-US customers to test._
        
         | sgbeal wrote:
         | > Logged into Dropbox to see (EU based). Setting wasn't there.
         | 
         | FWIW, just checked mine (EU-based "pro" account), and the
         | setting is there but was OFF. i have never specifically engaged
         | any features regarding AI in dropbox.
         | 
         | i do recall seeing a popup in the web interface sometime in the
         | past month about having AI summarize file content and i closed
         | the popup without tapping anything which remotely appeared to
         | be a consent button.
        
           | t0mas88 wrote:
           | Others in the EU are reporting it's off by default for them
           | as well. So it's probably configured deliberately as opt-out
           | in the US and opt-in in Europe.
           | 
           | I would call that a win for European privacy regulation.
        
             | JohnFen wrote:
             | And doubly scummy behavior on the part of Dropbox.
        
         | pwb25 wrote:
         | this sounds so stupid. how can some AI help me find what I need
         | when I know what I need and use a manual search? That's like
         | the definition of search
        
           | shwouchk wrote:
           | hey dropbox, get me that pdf about dinosaurs that I last
           | accessed about 6 months ago
        
       | rchaud wrote:
       | Nitter link: https://nitter.net/Werner/status/1734890651378975007
       | 
       | It took a while, but the arc of history is starting to bend in
       | favour of that guy who said 'just use rsync' on Drobox's Show HN
       | post in 2007.
        
         | capableweb wrote:
         | > It took a while, but the arc of history is starting to bend
         | in favour of that guy who said 'just use rsync' on Drobox's
         | Show HN post in 2007.
         | 
         | It be interesting to see a breakdown on "time spent" between
         | the people who went with Dropbox and started syncing stuff
         | right away VS the people who first setup their own
         | infrastructure to do the same thing.
        
         | tinyhouse wrote:
         | What are you talking about? They have almost 20M paying users
         | for a reason. Good luck asking all people in your company to
         | use rsync.
        
           | jacquesm wrote:
           | He's talking about the fact that those people don't need to
           | worry about third parties accessing their files without their
           | consent.
        
             | SoftTalker wrote:
             | I guess that depends on where you are rsync-ing to?
        
         | throwup238 wrote:
         | It was FTP [1]. If only he had said rsync, we wouldn't be here
         | now /s
         | 
         | [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
        
         | neilv wrote:
         | I'd still assume that the bulk of Dropbox users are the kind
         | who wouldn't want to figure out `rsync`.
         | 
         | For better or worse, even enough grad students at MIT (which
         | used to be one of the more computers-clueful places) used
         | Dropbox so heavily that _they included the Dropbox logo on the
         | grad class ring_ :
         | 
         | https://thetech.com/2013/09/06/gradrat-v133-n35
         | 
         | The class rings have considerable symbolism, and are very
         | important to some. I've heard that the rings can also be real
         | icebreakers at some startup events (between people with MIT
         | connections):
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_class_ring
        
           | zozbot234 wrote:
           | > I'd still assume that the bulk of Dropbox users are the
           | kind who wouldn't want to figure out `rsync`.
           | 
           | That's because OS's don't bother to support rsync with good
           | UX. That's what the old "My Briefcase" feature in Windows 9x
           | was all about. It even had special-case support for
           | difference merging (or "reconciliation") which rsync alone
           | doesn't quite provide.
        
           | rchaud wrote:
           | Average users don't want to figure anything out: adblockers,
           | torrents, cloud sync, you name it.
           | 
           | It's only when they get screwed by the vendor that they
           | realize that having a non-commercial, non-enshittified
           | alternative is crucial to counterbalance tech company
           | malfeasance.
        
         | EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote:
         | rsync ... to where? You need to rent a server first. And to do
         | that you need a credit card. And if you die, said credit card
         | gets canceled, as is your server, as is all your data. Happened
         | to me with a paid Dropbox account - card expired, all data
         | lost. A free Dropbox account has an advantage that it is good
         | for eternity (well, not a guarantee, but a reasonable
         | assumption). Also good for privacy.
         | 
         | I do rsync too (robocopy, to be exact), and I prepaid the
         | server for 2 years, but still, dropbox plays an important role
         | in ensuring longevity of my data.
        
         | charcircuit wrote:
         | rsync doesn't offer AI capabilities. If you want to roll your
         | own integration with OpenAI then you will still be sending data
         | to OpenAI.
        
       | sneak wrote:
       | If you care about your data being private and not shared, why
       | would you use a non-end-to-end-encrypted service like Dropbox in
       | the first place, where the provider can see all of your data and
       | share it as they please?
       | 
       | Make the choice once, up front, and then you can't be surprised
       | by things like this.
        
       | cynicalsecurity wrote:
       | Mega encrypts everything by design. Why use corporate crap and
       | keep up with their lying to you when you can use products that
       | don't steal your data. I'm surprised Dropbox is still in
       | business. At some point their fancy product name won't save them
       | from the consequences of their lying to the customers.
        
       | jacquesm wrote:
       | If you click the setting to 'off' you are making the assumption
       | that your stated desire will be honored and that there won't be
       | another move like that in the future. The better move would be to
       | stop using Dropbox, that way you are really sure that your files
       | won't be accessed by unauthorized parties.
       | 
       | I _really_ don 't get what drives companies like Dropbox to throw
       | their carefully built up reputation under the bus like this.
        
         | sorokod wrote:
         | Greed.
        
           | jacquesm wrote:
           | If true: what does OpenAI pay dropbox for access to their
           | customers' files? And what kind of guarantees are there that
           | OpenAI stays within the lines, because all of these AI
           | companies are looking for as much non-AI tainted data as they
           | can get their grubby little fingers on for training purposes.
        
             | rubberband wrote:
             | It's possible OpenAI doesn't get any money; and they just
             | provide whatever "AI service" is being requested of them,
             | and returns the results to Dropbox.
             | 
             | And, well, if OpenAI just _happens_ to gain access to a
             | trove of data by providing the service... -\\_(tsu)_ /-
        
         | SteveNuts wrote:
         | Most laypeople have _no idea_ what any of this means, and that
         | 's if they even hear about it at all.
         | 
         | The tech community that's clued into this is such a small
         | percentage, unfortunately.
         | 
         | Funny anecdote: remember when those "I do not consent to
         | facebook using my data" messages that were, ironically, posted
         | to people's facebook walls?
        
         | doomslice wrote:
         | All this setting does is make the feature available to you in
         | the frontend -- it's up to you to use it or not!
        
         | flippy_flops wrote:
         | Companies like Dropbox see reputation as capital. Keep a
         | little, but spend most of it on growth.
        
       | Gys wrote:
       | > Your data is never used to train their internal models, and is
       | deleted from third-party servers within 30 days.
       | 
       | Sure, because they paid you money for access and are very
       | trustworthy people.
        
       | Gys wrote:
       | Seems optional opt out is EU only...
        
       | throwaway5959 wrote:
       | What the fuck?! How is this not opt-in?!
        
       | shapenamer wrote:
       | Just checked my account and this option was on. Turned it off but
       | it's completely unacceptable that it was on in the first place.
       | If anyone has any good alternatives please let me know.
       | Preferably encrypted options.
        
         | neonnomad wrote:
         | There are some options:
         | 
         | Mega.io
         | 
         | Proton Drive
         | 
         | Rclone to your own encrypted bucket
         | 
         | Mountain Duck / Cloud Mounter to your own encrypted bucket
        
           | butz wrote:
           | Oh, Proton Drive. When will they release a client for Linux?
           | And when they will start adding AI to all Proton products?
        
         | caconym_ wrote:
         | I use a synology NAS on my home network with syncthing over a
         | wireguard tunnel for dropbox-esque functionality from anywhere
         | (only problem is poor iOS support). Nightly snapshotting to
         | backblaze.
        
         | shapenamer wrote:
         | I've been looking at options, and while mega seems good they
         | also seem to happily hand over your data to authorities, which
         | means it's not really encrypted, or might as well not be.
         | 
         | I've seen skiff shilled a few times here and on the twitter
         | thread but the website is too annoying for me lol.
         | 
         | Currently thinking I'm going to mess with filen.io tonight. It
         | has a linux client and is e2e encrypted. Still looking and open
         | to suggestions though.
        
           | ginsbergjason wrote:
           | :'(
        
       | hosh wrote:
       | Is there something similar to this for Google Drive?
        
       | Velofellow wrote:
       | I just checked my company's account. Third Party AI-Integrations
       | were defaulted to "On" despite our company having a paid personal
       | account.
       | 
       | My free personal account (still for work) does not have any
       | active third party integration.
        
       | pwb25 wrote:
       | Wat? Shouldn't it be the opposite way, that you turn this on?
       | those SV companies are getting hubris
        
       | vlovich123 wrote:
       | So to anyone wondering, I'm getting the sense is that the option
       | is only available for paid / business accounts. My hunch is that
       | the reason free accounts don't see it is that they don't get to
       | opt out & are forced in - it wouldn't make sense that they opt-in
       | paid/ENT but then exclude free accounts altogether vs free
       | accounts are opt-in and can't choose. Alternatively, may be it
       | isn't relevant to free accounts because they don't have access to
       | AI-related features: https://help.dropbox.com/view-edit/privacy-
       | settings-dropbox-...
       | 
       | The data isn't used for training, only for inference & DropBox
       | and OpenAI pinky promise to delete any data sent to them within
       | 30 days.
        
         | dbmikus wrote:
         | I'd actually guess that free accounts don't have the "toggle
         | AI" option because they just disable AI inference for free
         | users. LLM inference is pretty expensive.
        
         | pmags wrote:
         | I have a free account and this option was turned on by default
         | (with the option to disable it).
         | 
         | Talk about scummy....
        
       | nathants wrote:
       | the best way to do this is with:
       | 
       | https://cryptomator.org
        
       | edrxty wrote:
       | META: Why is this not on the front page? It has more points than
       | almost every other story and less time than most.
        
       | caconym_ wrote:
       | The best way to opt out of Dropbox's abusive practices is to pull
       | all your data out into a self-hosted or trustworthy e2e solution
       | and close your account. You should need no more proof than this
       | incident that Dropbox will not ask you before doing things with
       | your data that you would have strenuously objected to if they
       | had.
        
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       (page generated 2023-12-13 23:02 UTC)