Re: I've been thinking of signing up with Dropbox.

<[email protected]> wrote:

> Are there any negative things I should know about it? 

Trying to share private content requires either sending an invite via
e-mail for them to use a link, or you connect your Dropbox accounts to
share their content.  I've only a couple times tried publicly sharing
content in my Dropbox account, but recall it is a clumsy process.  They
used to have a Public folder, but quit providing that.

> For instance, Imgur had the nerve to want my phone number. Get real!

I've never had an account at Imgur to save online copies of pics.  I've
also never got prodded for any personal information, either.  Only if
you want to manage your uploaded pics do you need an account.  If you
intend to make them publicly available (i.e., no private uploads), you
don't need an account.  Since I always blur out any personal info in a
pic before uploading it, I don't need an account to restrict access.

Anything you upload to Imgur gives them the right to use that content
however they want.  "With regard to any file or content you upload to
the public portions of our site, you grant Imgur a non-exclusive,
royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable worldwide license (with sublicense
and assignment rights) to use, to display online and in any present or
future media, to create derivative works of, to allow downloads of,
and/or distribute any such file or content."  Read their terms
(https://imgur.com/tos), and that of any other site where you upload
your content.

> I know they make $$ off their users, but how bad is any spam
> generation or other nuisances after signing up?  

Since I don't have nor need an account, how would they know to where to
send any communication?  They don't have an e-mail address for me when I
upload without login to make my pics publicly accessible.  

Just be damn sure to review and edit your pics BEFORE uploading to
ensure nothing sensitive is included in the pics.  I did that once, and
they do offer a means to retract a pic.  Took a little over a day, so
the personal info was exposed for that long, but soon the pic
disappeared from their site.

> I have a tremendously great mail provider that allows killing spam
> junk a whole bunch of great ways, so I can handle that problem.

I've had a Dropbox account for many years.  Never received any spam from
them.

> Opinions about Dropbox??

Whether you think you trust a recipient of your e-mail address, or you
don't, you should always begin with distrust.  Doesn't matter what they
claim or how well known or how big they are.  They can decide to spam
you which isn't legally spam if you have a business relationship with
them.  I always start by giving an aliased e-mail address.  Instead of
giving them my true e-mail address, I give them an alias to redirects to
my true e-mail address.  Not just forwarding e-mails to the alias, but
also when replying to those aliased e-mails.  Replying can and often
does reveal from where you sent your reply.  A good aliasing (not just
forwarding) e-mail service should strip the headers of your real e-mail
provider to insert those from the aliasing service.  They should also
try to change your e-mail address to your alias address should you
include it in the body of your message, like in a signature; however, it
can be tricky to parse out e-mail addresses from HTML-formatted e-mails,
so only include your true e-mail address in a text-only signature, but
better yet is not add your true e-mail address anywhere in the body of
your reply.

I used to use SpamGourmet.  They let you create aliases on-the-fly along
with managing them, like disabling or deleting them.  If someone starts
spamming you through an alias, easy enough to kill the alias to never
receive spam from that source again.  To let me know to whom I gave an
alias, I used a left-token (username) in my alias that identified to who
I gave the alias, like "menards061724@" for when I gave an alias to
Menards (who will spam me despite I only gave them an e-mail address to
notify me when a shipment arrived at their store that I need to pick
up).  I add a datestamp to the left-token since I may end up killing the
alias, but want to later use another alias to the same sender.  The
stats on an alias let me know how many times it got used.  Alas,
SpamGourmet's owner got very ill from a terminal disease, his site went
downhill, he died, his son tried to take over but was ill-equipped to
know how it all worked, applied updates that had serious bugs, and
didn't monitor the forums to know when there were problems.  I left
them, and moved to AnonAddy.  Their free account lets you create
aliases, also on-the-fly, and manage them, but you only get 1 free
aliased reply.  To keep the reply function alive requires paying them
$1/month which is pretty cheap insurance to protect your true e-mail
address.

Do NOT attempt to use aliasing that an e-mail provider gives you.
Adding an alias to your username doesn't hide your username, so anyone
can figure out how to send to your true e-mail address.  The headers
will show from where you sent your e-mail.  There is no masking of your
true e-mail address should you include it in the body of your message.
Often there is no means of killing or just disabling an alias.  There is
often a limit of how many aliases you can define.  I want one that is
unique to every sender, so I know who has violated my trust when I start
getting spam (from them, or from someone else to whom they sold my
address).  Only after around 6 months of never getting any spam through
an alias might I update my account with a sender to give them my true
e-mail address.  Sometimes all they ever get is the alias.

There are other aliasing services that operate similarly, but some
require you use their web site to manage aliases, like to create them.
AnonAddy let you define them on-the-fly.  SpamMotel and SpamEx are
examples of other aliasing services (not just forwarding services), but
they aren't free.  AnonAddy is free if you never want to reply to
aliased e-mails.

Before SpamGourmet (which died), I used Sneakemail.  They had a free
service tier, but apparently that was to use users as load testers.
Once they got the bugs out of their system, they went commercial and
started charging for their service ($3/month).  They offered no loyalty
reward to their users which helped them test, build, and load their
service.  So, I left them.  They also offer almost no help on how to use
their service, or how it works.

Just be aware that some sites that want an e-mail address will reject
aliasing services.  They are invasive beyond any real need.  They don't
want anonymous users.  In that case, I leave, or I create a disposable
e-mail account, like at Hotmail/Outlook.com or Gmail, use it
temporarily, and then close the account.  While the account is still
alive, I use a rule to forward e-mails to there to my real e-mail
address, or I configure my e-mail client to monitor the disposable
account until I kill it.

Also, some so-called aliasing services are just forwarding services.
You aren't keep hidden in replies to aliased e-mails.  Some lump all
aliased e-mails into a common pool, so ANYONE can read them.  You need
to review the alternatives to see how they operate, and if they give you
what you want.  But NEVER just dole out your true e-mail address because
someone wants it.  If you went to a party of a bunch of people you don't
know, are you really going to give them your true e-mail address to have
them use/abuse it however they want?  Trust is something that gets built
over time and with experience.  Respect is something you dole out a
portion even to strangers.  Respect and trust are not the same.

If you don't protect your true e-mail address, don't expect anyone else
to do so, either.