[ale] Dropbox opinions wanted

[Pat Regan]

On Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:05:20 -0400
Michael Trausch <mike at trausch.us> wrote:

> They could be encrypting to 2 keys: your password and a key that they
> do not share, but use to read from Amazon or whatever. It is possible
> that they also then generate the hashes prior to encryption. The
> level of protection is such that one couldn't steal the files from S3
> but a DB empl might be able to.

I've been thinking about this a lot today...  I'd really like dropbox
like functionality (and an app on my phone!) but I'm not very
trusting...

If they store the hash prior to encryption that means anyone with
access to their database can know what files I have stored in my
account.  That could be the RIAA or MPAA.  If things work like everyone
says they work then this is one of the things they do have or else they
couldn't make it work.

If they can deliver a file that is in my account to one of your
machines then they have to have a way to decrypt it.  If they can
decrypt my file I would consider it barely safe up there.

Their FAQ says:

"All files stored on Dropbox servers are encrypted (AES-256) and are
inaccessible without your account password"

"Dropbox employees aren't able to access user files, and when
troubleshooting an account they only have access to file metadata
(filenames, file sizes, etc., not the file contents)"

I read these two bullet points when this discussion first started.  For
these points to really mean anything the data needs to be encrypted
before it leaves your computer.  If that were true my trust level in
Dropbox would have gone up from where it was before this thread
started...

If everyone is correct and they are sharing files between users then
the first point is barely useful and almost a falsehood.  They are
almost implying that only your account password can decrypt the files.
What they really mean to say is:

"All files stored on Dropbox servers are encrypted (AES-256) and are
inaccessible without your account password AND ONE OR MORE KEYS OWNED
BY DROPBOX"

That means that the second bullet point about employees not being able
to access the files is probably more a matter of policy than it is a
technical limitation.

I figure my data would be just one notch more private with Dropbox than
it is with Google...

Pat

I was thinking about how to implement some Dropbox functionality with
inotify and rsync.  Is anyone interested in talking about that? :)