Dropbox removed ability to opt your files out of AI training

Comments

• LastYearsPumpkin@feddit.ch ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Why does dropbox have the ability to see your files at all? That seems like a pretty bad security flaw in the first place.

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  • LufyCZ@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Because you gave them the files?

    If you don’t want dropbox to see them, encrypt them.

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    • LWD@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      [deleted]

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  • voracitude@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Man wait til you hear about Gmail

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    • Tangent5280@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Email is like the one critical part a lot of people miss when talking about taking control of your data. Imagine how much could be gleaned out of email history? Where you go, what you do, who you talk with, what you buy, what you rent, what media you consume, everything. If you dont have a lot of friends someone with your email account could pretty much just doppelganger you and go on as if nothings happened.

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  • hersh@literature.cafe ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    There are drawbacks to end-to-end encryption (E2EE). I’m not aware of any E2EE cloud storage systems that have the features Dropbox provides. I would LOVE to know of any that…

    1. Support at least the big 5 platforms (Android/iOS/Mac/Windows/Linux).

    2. Have a functional web interface.

    3. Support sharing and collaboration.

    4. Have a search feature

    5. Sync to the local filesystem on a folder-by-folder or even file-by-file basis

    6. Integrate with other tools (e.g. android file picker)

    It’s not easy to do all that with E2EE, like a functional web interface, search, and integration.

    ProtonMail’s search, for example, is limited to subject and metadata, and that’s specifically because they DON’T use E2EE for that.

    I’m willing to compromise some of this for the sake of E2EE, but I’m not at all surprised that feature-first services are more popular than privacy-first services.

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    • mitrosus@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Mega uses e2ee and is available in all platforms I use. I don’t use apple. Web interface is very functional. I think it does support sharing files via link. Should have a search feature also, never used (because I know exactly where I keep my files). It does sync with locals. I don’t know about android file picker.

      Mega is not a good choice for Lemmy users or Foss activists, probably because of its history - which is not as clean as say next cloud, but is not like google either. As long as it works :/

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    • asbestos@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I think proton drive covers all but the collaboration

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    • Natanael@slrpnk.net ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      1: easy to port E2EE, it’s just math

      2: browsers and E2EE is hard, you need an extension to implement it securely so the password can’t be made accessible directly to the server (you need it to remain secret even from the hosting company) or else you’re dealing with MITM risk

      3: easy by sharing encryption keys using E2EE messaging protocols on top

      4: encrypted search is a thing, but such indexes does tend to have some limitations

      5: still easy

      6: still easy, Android specifically have APIs to let apps register themselves to the file picker so they can transparently encrypt and decrypt files. But yes on other systems where 3rd party apps can’t offer such integration then it’s hard

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• rickdg@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Response from dropbox in that post: “Jumping in to clarify some confusion. The AI third-party toggle is only visible to users who have access to our AI features. If you don’t see the AI third-party toggle, then you can’t view or use Dropbox AI features. To reiterate, neither this nor any other setting automatically or passively sends any Dropbox customer data to a third-party AI service. Please see our Help Center article for a list of those with access to Dropbox AI features.”

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  • JustARegularNerd@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I don’t know why I find it so surprising that Dropbox apparently has a Hacker News account, but I am mindblown that’s a thing.

    I thought HN would be way too niche for that to be a thing.

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    • pheew@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Seeing dropbox is actually a ycombinator alumni it’s not that surprising 😄

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    • JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Dropbox is pretty cool. (Don’t mistake this as some weird astroturfing.) I remember hearing about their custom hardware on an episode of se-radio. Very fascinating stuff.

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• schwim@reddthat.com ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  You can still opt out by opting not to use Dropbox.

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  • magnor@lemmy.magnor.ovh ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    This is the sensible option. Fuck them.

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    • artic@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Just encry client side before upload

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• otter@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Guess I need to find and close that account now

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  • b3an@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I did this. Enjoy unsharing literally every shared file and folder and removing access etc. I thought I deleted all my files. Nope. Checked the shared area. You’ll need to undo all of that manually. Only then was I finally able to rid myself of this enshittified disaster. Goodbye forever Dropbox. The only good you ever did was scannable.

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• RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Literally the first sentence of your own source:

  Dropbox has hidden third party AI settings, not disabled them

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  • Newtra@pawb.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    But the comments below say they’re not able to access the new page, even with the direct URL… It seems certain tiers of customers can’t opt out. Possibly they can’t be included in the first place (e.g. EU users), but it’s a pretty big screw up to hide one’s status on such an important privacy setting.

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  • wagoner@infosec.pub ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    On, so how do I as a user access these to change those settings please?

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    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      If they’re hiding them, chances are it’s only going to get worse, not better.

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• lautan@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Closing my Dropbox account now.

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  • Midnight1938@reddthat.com ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Wnat are you going to?

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• redcalcium@lemmy.institute ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Wait, Dropbox can use your files to train AI? How is this acceptable? Aren’t people storing their keepass vaults there?

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  • geogle@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Those had better be encrypted

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  • logicbomb@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Password manager is one of the few “free” services that I pay for. Still feeling pretty good about 1password.

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    • Plopp@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Pff, such capitalist bull. But communists at least have LastPass, that shares our passwords with the world under the banner of no private ownership.

      But seriously, paying for a password manager is a good thing. Find a good and secure one that is properly vetted and trusted in the industry, and support them if you can.

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  • MagneticFusion@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    You better have created a Keyfile with it and store that only locally on your devices, otherwise if your passwords get leaked or you get hacked it is 100% your fault and not Dropbox’s fault.

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    • redcalcium@lemmy.institute ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      But what about files and documents containing PII? It’s not ok to use them for AI training.

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• Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I said this in another post:

  If your business is using Dropbox as cloud storage, you are so fucked!

  In 2015, I worked in a company that stored financial records. Small restaurant company with 80 employees. I emailed them last week about this and they’re already making moves to leave.

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  • Patches@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It’s wild that you’re still in contact with your former employers.

    Literally every single one has “fired me” and escorted me from the premises after I have a 2 week notice.

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    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      You can leave a company on good terms.

      I also highly recommend not burning bridges. Even if they were a shit storm, 2-3 years later you might change your mind.

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• reksas@sopuli.xyz ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Time for dropbox users to upload all kinds of crap for ai to “learn” from, all within tos of course.

  I bet there are many kinds of ways to make your files poison the ai learning data. Its going to be fun for those ai guys to sort which files are probably safe and which are not. I think even if ONE user manages to slip something that corrupts the training data and its not noticed soon enough it might cause problems for them. Though someone who actually knows something about the subject might want to tell if i’m talking shit or not.

  I’m not against ai in general, but if its trained with data that was obtained from unwilling people, like this, then its makers can fuck off.

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  • JonEFive@midwest.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It really depends on what the AI training is looking for. You can potentially poison an AI training model, but you’ll likely have to add enough data to be statistically relevant.

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    • reksas@sopuli.xyz ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      enough data as in many different people will have to upload one or two files that contain such data or you have to upload very large file that contains a lot of data that causes problems?

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• Waluigis_Talking_Buttplug@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Best time for people to learn about home servers.

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  • bilb@lem.monster ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The problem, as I’m sure you know, is that a home server is not fit for purpose for the vast majority of people. Managing that is a fun project for some, but a complete non starter for most.

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    • Patches@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Synology makes it relatively painless with synology drive. It ain’t cheap but neither is drop box long-term

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  • hushable@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I used to pay for Dropbox about a decade ago, I replaced it with a raspberry pi running syncthing with an USB drive attached to it

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• egeres@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  This situation is so ridiculous

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• the16bitgamer@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Thanks I forgot I even had a dropbox account. And everything is deleted files and account.

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  • iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Check for old shares. I had EVERYTHING deleted, from files, recycled bin…For nearly a decade already. BUT. Today I just found there were old shares of those deleted files. I clicked to delete the shares too. Guess what, the files were back onto the dropbox folder as if they never were deleted a decade ago! So I had to delete them again, and then from the recycle bin. And then deleted the account.

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• NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  opt your files out

  your files?

  your files? LOL

  Don’t forget, Dropbox belongs to Microsoft. The harddisks where “your” files are stored belong to Microsoft.

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  • Deconceptualist@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Source? I never heard about a MS acquisition or majority stock buy.

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  • Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Unless you have a source this is straight up disinformation. As far as I’m aware and as far as I can tell, Dropbox is an independent company.

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  • Pika@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    you might be confusing one drive with Dropbox, I don’t think DB is MS owned

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• Wet@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Happy I moved to Syncthing a long time ago. My data is replicated on several locations and instances on cheap old raspberries+drives and syncs instantly even on my phone, where I keep Obsidian notes. No size limits, no huge hassle, 10 minutes to get a new instance set up.

  Every now and then I will rsync the encrypted version to an offline drive and store it somewhere else.

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  • Tangent5280@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    What do you use for encryption? I’m open to options for encryption. Any opinions about Veracrypt?

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    • Wet@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Syncthing has built-in encryption and works pretty well, it’s also really easy to use. I have been using it for some time with several instances and never had a problem, it requires more CPU though, so some old raspies had a hard time working with my big photos folder (800GB) when encrypted.

      Not sure how secure it is, but from the docs: Encryption is XChaCha20-Poly1305 and AES-SIV with a key derived from the password and folder ID using scrypt. Considering how polished, huge user base and how much attention to detail Syncthing has, I trust it’s good enough for my needs.

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• BoastfulDaedra@lemmynsfw.com ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Apparently Proton has a drive service now…

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• Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  So are there any files that an AI shouldn’t vacuum up that I just happen to have in my dropbox?

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  • Crashumbc@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Anything private or financial

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• extant@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  If you aren’t aware rclone makes it easy to backup (copy) or sync files to different cloud providers like Dropbox and you can setup encryption very easily so you can continue using Dropbox since it does have pretty good value for the price even though they’ve shown they aren’t trustworthy.

  rclone.org/dropbox/ rclone.org/crypt/ rclone.org/commands/rclone_copy/ rclone.org/commands/rclone_sync/

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  • sloppy_diffuser@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    For android there is RoundSync. It automatically backs up folders of your choice on a schedule. Not on any app store. It must be installed by downloading the apk from GitHub.

    There is also Cryptomator as an alternative. I used it for years without issue, but prefer rclone for more control over my work stream. Think I paid a one time license $10 for desktop and another $10 for mobile.

    Dropbox is only a good deal if you use near peak storage and/or do a lot of data transfers.

    I was paying $120/yr for 2TB. Now I’m on B2 Backblaze. On paper Dropbox was cheaper, but with my usage pattern I’m paying like $1.00 every other month.

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    • extant@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I looked into backblaze and was kind of turned off by the egress fee though I doubt I would exceed that for backups unless I had some really bad luck. Dropbox integrates with a lot of apps and that provides some value to me and with the comparable pricing Dropbox seems safer.

      That said I’d love to hear more because I think my situation sounds similar to yours. “$6/TB/Month. No Hidden Fees. No Delete Penalties” but then it says “Storage: $0.006 GB/Month Download: Free up to 3x monthly storage” and I’m confused, is it $6 a month for a TB or is it $0.62 for 1024 GB at $0.0006 GB/Month?

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• answersplease77@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I have my dick pics in there wtf is AI going to learn

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  • RandysGut@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    What hotdogs look like, obviously

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  • JonEFive@midwest.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The latest stable diffusion base model will be trained 100% on Dropbox dick pics. Your dick’s likeness will be merged with that of thousands of other dicks and will be used to generate semi-realistic dick imagery.

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• Fenrisulfir@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  So if I don’t opt out can I force the AI to train on my files?

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• yoz@aussie.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Wow! Never used Dropbox but wonder if google drive is doing the same ? 🤔

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• rizoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  [deleted]

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  • rizoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I wrote a comment before fully reading the article. Its hidden not disabled. I still don’t like that though and I still think the corporate clients I know use Dropbox should move away from it.

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