I've recommended Dropbox to a number of personal friends throughout the past couple of years. When the first security incident (Dropbox employees being able to read files when they said they couldn't) came up a couple of months ago, one of my friends emailed me to ask what the deal was with this company. He doesn't know them from HN. He only knows them from me. In my circle, I'm the one responsible for Dropbox.
When the password incident came up a couple of weeks ago, I was on guard and emailed my friends proactively before they found out about it via news sites.
I don't bash on Dropbox because:
- they have a great product
- security is hard
- startups are hard
- they are a yc company
But I think it's fair to say that:
- they made mistakes
- they handled the initial mistakes poorly
- they are now working to address any issues, but...
- ...every subsequent action is therefore under more scrutiny
In summary, there is no thought manipulation by the media. There are a lot of lessons that can be learned from this, but being dismissive of it is the exact wrong thing.
When the password incident came up a couple of weeks ago, I was on guard and emailed my friends proactively before they found out about it via news sites.
I don't bash on Dropbox because:
But I think it's fair to say that: In summary, there is no thought manipulation by the media. There are a lot of lessons that can be learned from this, but being dismissive of it is the exact wrong thing.