4 ms·

Right, they have all your files already, so there's clearly some level of trust.

Johnny555 10y ago
They only have (well should only have) access to the files I share on Dropbox, which is pretty much just music files, so if someone steals those files, I won't be too upset.
lucb1e 10y ago
> they have all your files already Hell no they don't? They have some shared folders between classmates and a few encrypted archives for personal backups.
- chris_7 10y ago
  1. Dropbox asks for root 2. Dropbox does not use sandboxing (at least, the one I have doesn't) So, they do.
  - lucb1e 10y ago
    There is a difference between having all my files and being able to access all my files via a client. 1) My files are not on their service and thus not available at their discretion; they would first have to be uploaded. 2) With that logic all applications "have" all my files, but you bet I'd find it weird if I caught Libreoffice uploading files of interest to a service of theirs. That said, I do see your point. Most desktop applications (as opposed to mobile apps) are capable of a lot more than they need to, and even many popular mobile apps are. I just wouldn't say I implicitly trust them with all of my files.
    - chris_7 10y ago
      > 2) With that logic all applications "have" all my files, but you bet I'd find it weird if I caught Libreoffice uploading files of interest to a service of theirs. On macOS this is not true though, for well-behaved document-based apps! Sandboxing prevents access to anything you haven't explicitly granted access to. I don't know if Libreoffice implements it correctly, though.
      - danieldk 10y ago
        And before someone says that this is not feasible for a Dropbox-like application: OneDrive is distributed via the App Store (with its sandboxing requirements).
  - guitarbill 10y ago
    There's been some downvotes (thanks for the constructive feedback /s), but I'd agree that this is a better way to put it. Anything that asks for root has 100% access at that moment, and possibly in future. It's easy to forget with all the "training" that `sudo`and confirmation dialogs provide, but true. Heck, if you install something (and by install I mean allow itself to integrate into the system, as opposed to say a script), you have to trust something. Either you trust the issuer, the package maintainers, or yourself (after you've checked 100% of the source code and compile it), but there's trust at some point.

They only have (well should only have) access to the files I share on Dropbox, which is pretty much just music files, so if someone steals those files, I won't be too upset.

lucb1e 10y ago

> they have all your files already Hell no they don't? They have some shared folders between classmates and a few encrypted archives for personal backups.

chris_7 10y ago
1. Dropbox asks for root 2. Dropbox does not use sandboxing (at least, the one I have doesn't) So, they do.
- lucb1e 10y ago
  There is a difference between having all my files and being able to access all my files via a client. 1) My files are not on their service and thus not available at their discretion; they would first have to be uploaded. 2) With that logic all applications "have" all my files, but you bet I'd find it weird if I caught Libreoffice uploading files of interest to a service of theirs. That said, I do see your point. Most desktop applications (as opposed to mobile apps) are capable of a lot more than they need to, and even many popular mobile apps are. I just wouldn't say I implicitly trust them with all of my files.
  - chris_7 10y ago
    > 2) With that logic all applications "have" all my files, but you bet I'd find it weird if I caught Libreoffice uploading files of interest to a service of theirs. On macOS this is not true though, for well-behaved document-based apps! Sandboxing prevents access to anything you haven't explicitly granted access to. I don't know if Libreoffice implements it correctly, though.
    - danieldk 10y ago
      And before someone says that this is not feasible for a Dropbox-like application: OneDrive is distributed via the App Store (with its sandboxing requirements).
- guitarbill 10y ago
  There's been some downvotes (thanks for the constructive feedback /s), but I'd agree that this is a better way to put it. Anything that asks for root has 100% access at that moment, and possibly in future. It's easy to forget with all the "training" that `sudo`and confirmation dialogs provide, but true. Heck, if you install something (and by install I mean allow itself to integrate into the system, as opposed to say a script), you have to trust something. Either you trust the issuer, the package maintainers, or yourself (after you've checked 100% of the source code and compile it), but there's trust at some point.