Does your data take refuge in DropBox? Might be time to consider relocation. This morning the staff over at Dropbox seemed to have taken leave of their senses. They posted this revision of their terms of service.
From Dropbox:
We sometimes need your permission to do what you ask us to do with your stuff (for example, hosting, making public, or sharing your files). By submitting your stuff to the Services, you grant us (and those we work with to provide the Services) worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable rights to use, copy, distribute, prepare derivative works (such as translations or format conversions) of, perform, or publicly display that stuff to the extent we think it necessary for the Service. You must ensure you have the rights you need to grant us that permission.
This in turn ignited a storm on social media and a veritable exodus of users from the service. As could be expected there was even a twitter account created in response to the revised TOS. Amusing.
Soon after the storm blasted through the tubes of the web there was a revision to the revision to the Terms of Service as published:
[Update – 7/2] – We asked for your feedback and we’ve been listening. As a result, we’ve clarified our language on licensing:
You retain ownership to your stuff. You are also solely responsible for your conduct, the content of your files and folders, and your communications with others while using the Services.
We sometimes need your permission to do what you ask us to do with your stuff (for example, hosting, making public, or sharing your files). By submitting your stuff to the Services, you grant us (and those we work with to provide the Services) worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable rights to use, copy, distribute, prepare derivative works (such as translations or format conversions) of, perform, or publicly display that stuff to the extent reasonably necessary for the Service. This license is solely to enable us to technically administer, display, and operate the Services. You must ensure you have the rights you need to grant us that permission.
Drew & Arash
The update notwithstanding the exodus continued unabated. This coupled with their recent security failures it is no wonder that people were jumping ship. While it could be argued that DropBox intended something different than what was written. The genie was already out of the bottle. There were calls for calm but, it was too late. The camel back was broken.
So, rather than belabour the issue; what are the alternatives available?
This is not an endorsement of any of those solutions as we have only begun testing them. It’s some guidance for potential DropBox replacements. Here is a list of 41 options that are possible choices. Use at your own discretion.
I have left DropBox myself. This may have been a gaffe on the part of DropBox but, to be honest, it is just one too many screw ups.
Just beware that some of those services are worse than Dropboxbecause the require perpetual and irrevocable license to your stuff, meaning they can keep it forever and you can never make them delete it from their servers for any reason.
@joe Agreed. As I had mentioned, these were not endorsements.
Folks, be sure to do your homework before making the switch from DropBox.
Just encrypt your stuff with TrueCrypt before uploading it anywhere, problem solved. They can reproduce your AES/Twofish encrypted files until they’re blue in the face, as long as you use a long enough passphrase… otherwise, it doesn’t matter where you store it, if it isn’t encrypted, someone, someday is going to gain unauthorized access to it.
I cancelled my DropBox subscription a bit before the new TOS came out and asked for a refund. They actually refunded me one month of service, which is better than nothing I suppose. Since then I have been using Enveloc with some success, and I have a client office (cpa firm) using http://www.sharefile.com to let their clients download their tax forms and returns, etc.
Is there an opensource solution that you can install and maintain on a server?