Re:Changes to our policies
by shib71 on Friday July 01, 2011 @06:35PM
(#2720415)
I've wished for change overviews like this. Paypal policy changes in particular - when they send an email simply to say that their 10 page policy document has changed, that isn't helpful.
Re:Changes to our policies
by pmadden on Friday July 01, 2011 @10:17PM
(#2720846)
The EFF diffs some, e.g. http://www.tosback.org/diff.php?vid=1736. That one actually suggests an improvement: You have to strain your eyes to find the difference. In other pairs, the differences stand out better.
Re:Changes to our policies
by joshzayin on Friday July 01, 2011 @10:48PM
(#2720888)
I agree. At least on the Mac client, there's already an "Advanced" preference pane. Why not create an option there for the user to manage their own encryption key, and possibly what folders it applies to? (For example, they could exempt shared and public folders but encrypt everything else.)
Re:Changes to our policies
by Derbasti on Sunday July 03, 2011 @03:34AM
(#2723287)
You still have to trust them that they do not transmit your keys elsewhere and that they really do use the same crypto code thy open-sourced.
I am not saying that you can't trust Dropbox. Quite on the contrary. But if you give your key to some unknown entity, you have to trust them. You can choose to trust their claims about what they do with it, but there is ultimately no guarantee.
Re:Changes to our policies
by fmavituna on Tuesday July 05, 2011 @10:04AM
(#2729840)
Beauty of asymmetric crypto, you don't have to trust them as soon as you can trust the client software (that it doesn't do something nasty with your private key/pass). And having an open source client can actually provide that trust.
Re:Changes to our policies
by thesis on Friday July 01, 2011 @07:21PM
(#2720542)
"We want to be clear about how we collect and use that data, so we’ve explained it in our privacy policy. For example, we collect information such as your country, operating system and the hardware ID from your device. This data allows us to optimize your experience for your device and language."
I was thinking they'd have examples like the above in their Privacy Policy... but I was wrong. If they want to be crystal clear, I think they need to be more specific rather than Analytics, Geo-Location Info, and Personal Info are stored.
"For example" to me seems like just the tip of the iceberg, and the three bullet points seem fairly basic.
Re:Changes to our policies
by orijing on Saturday July 02, 2011 @02:19AM
(#2721139)
Perhaps they can have ellipses (...) that, when moused over, describe in legal detail everything they collect, so those of us who care for the details can read more into it. But I applaud them for trying to keep it readable and short.
The tradeoff is hard to make, but at least for me, it was a right balance.
Diffs would be very nice, as would some way of tracking those changes over time.
Opportunity for useful service?
Agreed. This is a hard thing to get right, especially with these kind of 'inhuman' legal/procedural issues.
Then make it optional and disable these services for people opt-in for managing their own private keys.
I am not saying that you can't trust Dropbox. Quite on the contrary. But if you give your key to some unknown entity, you have to trust them. You can choose to trust their claims about what they do with it, but there is ultimately no guarantee.
I was thinking they'd have examples like the above in their Privacy Policy... but I was wrong. If they want to be crystal clear, I think they need to be more specific rather than Analytics, Geo-Location Info, and Personal Info are stored.
"For example" to me seems like just the tip of the iceberg, and the three bullet points seem fairly basic.
The tradeoff is hard to make, but at least for me, it was a right balance.
What do you think?