5 ms·

Yeah, this is a hard one. There are users on /r/DataHoarder/ that claim to have uploaded literally 100s of (encrypted) TBs to Cloud Drive, which is plainly unsu

Yeah, this is a hard one. There are users on /r/DataHoarder/ that claim to have uploaded literally 100s of (encrypted) TBs to Cloud Drive, which is plainly unsustainable and abusive. On the other hand, they've also killed the product for a lot of more legitimate users as well. The Amazon web interface and apps for Cloud Drive are obnoxiously terrible, and Rclone really is just a better way to use it. I've been using it to sync 10s of GBs of photos between all my different computers, but with Rclone unavailable, I'll have to fall back to Google Drive, S3, or some other option (the unlimitedness of Cloud Drive was good peace of mind). I'll be keeping an eye on it over the next few weeks to see whether shipping a binary with OAuth secrets was actually the reason for the ban, or just a pretext for getting the Rclone users off the service (personally, I suspect the latter).

saurik 9y ago
So why not just take apart the official apps for Google Cloud Drive and use whatever API and authority into has to build your alternative client?
- brandur 9y ago
  The nice thing about Rclone is that it already supports Google Cloud Drive (and a host of other providers) so the technology isn't the problem. I'm lamenting Amazon Cloud Drive in particular because it was the best deal. $60 a year for unlimited storage and with no caveats (or so it seemed before last week).
  - saurik 9y ago
    I am sorry, "Google" was clearly a typo: I meant "Amazon". You do not need Amazon's permission to write a client that targets their API.
Oletros 9y ago
If a service claims that they provide UNLIMITED storage why using it is abusing?
- burkaman 9y ago
  abuse: use (something) to bad effect or for a bad purpose; misuse. Abuse doesn't mean breaking the rules. It's like going to an all-you-can-eat buffet and staying for a week. Or taking a job with unlimited vacation time and coming to work once a month.
  - Oletros 9y ago
    Then we agree to disagree.
    - burkaman 9y ago
      What do we disagree about?
      - Oletros 9y ago
        I disagree with you in that it is a misuse. What Amazon should do, as Microsoft should have been done in the case of the unlimited Onedrive offer is putting some clause of reasonable use. When some company offers an unlimited resource, some of the customers will use it to upload/download/etc a lot.
  - milcron 9y ago
    They should declare limits, then.
    - nkrisc 9y ago
      I bet in the ToS there are likely limits spelled out, or barring that, a clause that grants Amazon to right to shut you down if they unilaterally decide you're "abusing" the system.
      - Oletros 9y ago
        I have looked at the TOS in Spain and you won the bet :) They can shut down your account for the reason you stated
mwambua 9y ago
I just use it to upload daily encrypted backups of my mail-server (< 500MB per month)... so I wouldn't mind if they set some reasonable limit to encrypted uploads (say 1-10TB). I feel like anyone who's actually uploading personal content and who isn't uploading media files that are amenable to deduplication would be comfortable with some threshold as well.
- wolfgke 9y ago
  > so I wouldn't mind if they set some reasonable limit to encrypted uploads (say 1-10TB). How is Amazon supposed to distinguish between encrypted and non-encrypted data that you upload?
  - pinum 9y ago
    A heuristic. No common magic header and poor compressibility? Likely encrypted.
    - sillysaurus3 9y ago
      Since encrypted data is indistinguishable from random noise, I think poor compressibility is actually zero compressibility, isn't it? There are tools to search for TrueCrypt / other encrypted partitions on disks, so it's a solved problem to detect encrypted data. It would be unfortunate if services ban the ability to upload encrypted secrets, though. On the other hand, that'd be good for Tarsnap. I wonder how much it'd cost to store 10TB on it?
      - icebraining 9y ago
        Since encrypted data is indistinguishable from random noise, I think poor compressibility is actually zero compressibility, isn't it? I don't think so. Random noise can take any form - even of a string composed entirely of zeros, which would be trivially compressed. It's just very unlikely that it'll actually be compressible.
        9y ago
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

saurik 9y ago

So why not just take apart the official apps for Google Cloud Drive and use whatever API and authority into has to build your alternative client?

brandur 9y ago
The nice thing about Rclone is that it already supports Google Cloud Drive (and a host of other providers) so the technology isn't the problem. I'm lamenting Amazon Cloud Drive in particular because it was the best deal. $60 a year for unlimited storage and with no caveats (or so it seemed before last week).
- saurik 9y ago
  I am sorry, "Google" was clearly a typo: I meant "Amazon". You do not need Amazon's permission to write a client that targets their API.

Oletros 9y ago

If a service claims that they provide UNLIMITED storage why using it is abusing?

burkaman 9y ago
abuse: use (something) to bad effect or for a bad purpose; misuse. Abuse doesn't mean breaking the rules. It's like going to an all-you-can-eat buffet and staying for a week. Or taking a job with unlimited vacation time and coming to work once a month.
- Oletros 9y ago
  Then we agree to disagree.
  - burkaman 9y ago
    What do we disagree about?
    - Oletros 9y ago
      I disagree with you in that it is a misuse. What Amazon should do, as Microsoft should have been done in the case of the unlimited Onedrive offer is putting some clause of reasonable use. When some company offers an unlimited resource, some of the customers will use it to upload/download/etc a lot.
- milcron 9y ago
  They should declare limits, then.
  - nkrisc 9y ago
    I bet in the ToS there are likely limits spelled out, or barring that, a clause that grants Amazon to right to shut you down if they unilaterally decide you're "abusing" the system.
    - Oletros 9y ago
      I have looked at the TOS in Spain and you won the bet :) They can shut down your account for the reason you stated

mwambua 9y ago

I just use it to upload daily encrypted backups of my mail-server (< 500MB per month)... so I wouldn't mind if they set some reasonable limit to encrypted uploads (say 1-10TB). I feel like anyone who's actually uploading personal content and who isn't uploading media files that are amenable to deduplication would be comfortable with some threshold as well.

wolfgke 9y ago
> so I wouldn't mind if they set some reasonable limit to encrypted uploads (say 1-10TB). How is Amazon supposed to distinguish between encrypted and non-encrypted data that you upload?
- pinum 9y ago
  A heuristic. No common magic header and poor compressibility? Likely encrypted.
  - sillysaurus3 9y ago
    Since encrypted data is indistinguishable from random noise, I think poor compressibility is actually zero compressibility, isn't it? There are tools to search for TrueCrypt / other encrypted partitions on disks, so it's a solved problem to detect encrypted data. It would be unfortunate if services ban the ability to upload encrypted secrets, though. On the other hand, that'd be good for Tarsnap. I wonder how much it'd cost to store 10TB on it?
    - icebraining 9y ago
      Since encrypted data is indistinguishable from random noise, I think poor compressibility is actually zero compressibility, isn't it? I don't think so. Random noise can take any form - even of a string composed entirely of zeros, which would be trivially compressed. It's just very unlikely that it'll actually be compressible.
      - 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]