3 ms·

But Dropbox is a YC company. Why do you need the assurance of some fancy acronym like AES?

algorias 14y ago
Is a fancy acronym like YC any better? I would trust the founders not to look at private data, but any company that has employees is vulnerable to one of them going rogue.
- WA 14y ago
  Exactly. In addition: If on court order someone wants to access my data in the cloud, even (or especially) a YC company will follow the order. The only protection against that is that the cloud storage provider doesn't have the encryption keys.
racbart 14y ago
YC doesn't control Dropbox. Whatever trust you have in a minor shareholder, it shouldn't translate to trust for the company. There are other reasons as well: potential vulnerabilities in their software, malicious/crazy/corrupted employees, etc. Healthy need-to-know rule is enough to decide that if there's no reason your cloud provider should have access to your data, he shouldn't have it.
TheEskimo 14y ago
I do hope this is a joke. "some fancy acronym like AES"... I can't tell if this is a failed attempt to be funny through saying something so ridiculously stupid or if you're serious. There are lots of acronyms that are BS, but AES isn't one of them. It's mathematically backed and has been thoroughly tested to be strong. Dropbox being a YC company means absolutely zero other than that YC liked their idea and supported them. That doesn't give me any assurance that they won't make a mistake or that an employee won't sell my data. In fact, Dropbox, despite being a YC company, already slipped up majorly once to the point that every account was completely passwordless. You could just type in random emails at the web login and view some stranger's files. Story here: http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/20/dropbox-security-bug-made-passwords-optional-for-four-hours/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/20/dropbox-security-bug-made-p... On the other hand, AES has yet to slip up. My AES encrypted data will take a significant fraction of the life of the universe to crack and, YC or no, a single programmer error won't break it.
- chops 14y ago
  Pretty sure it was a joke.
sp332 14y ago
Funny, but for those who don't get the joke https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5059806 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5059806

Is a fancy acronym like YC any better? I would trust the founders not to look at private data, but any company that has employees is vulnerable to one of them going rogue.

WA 14y ago
Exactly. In addition: If on court order someone wants to access my data in the cloud, even (or especially) a YC company will follow the order. The only protection against that is that the cloud storage provider doesn't have the encryption keys.

racbart 14y ago

YC doesn't control Dropbox. Whatever trust you have in a minor shareholder, it shouldn't translate to trust for the company. There are other reasons as well: potential vulnerabilities in their software, malicious/crazy/corrupted employees, etc. Healthy need-to-know rule is enough to decide that if there's no reason your cloud provider should have access to your data, he shouldn't have it.

TheEskimo 14y ago

I do hope this is a joke. "some fancy acronym like AES"... I can't tell if this is a failed attempt to be funny through saying something so ridiculously stupid or if you're serious. There are lots of acronyms that are BS, but AES isn't one of them. It's mathematically backed and has been thoroughly tested to be strong. Dropbox being a YC company means absolutely zero other than that YC liked their idea and supported them. That doesn't give me any assurance that they won't make a mistake or that an employee won't sell my data. In fact, Dropbox, despite being a YC company, already slipped up majorly once to the point that every account was completely passwordless. You could just type in random emails at the web login and view some stranger's files. Story here: http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/20/dropbox-security-bug-made-passwords-optional-for-four-hours/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/20/dropbox-security-bug-made-p... On the other hand, AES has yet to slip up. My AES encrypted data will take a significant fraction of the life of the universe to crack and, YC or no, a single programmer error won't break it.

chops 14y ago
Pretty sure it was a joke.

sp332 14y ago

Funny, but for those who don't get the joke https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5059806 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5059806