(Assuming this is true....) Because if they're stuck supporting old versions of Dropbox, they're miserable (having to support dozens of versions) and you're miserable (things start to break). I understand why people would be worried about Dropbox auto-downloading software, but honestly... if you're the kind of person worried about the security around Dropbox auto-updating the same way every app on your phone does, you probably aren't using Dropbox to begin with.
> auto-updating the same way every app on your phone does
I'm on the latest iOS (10.2.1), and it's optional - I have 23 apps ready for updates, but I can scan through the release notes before initiating the update.
Except that each of those sandboxed apps keeps uploading your behavioural and private data pretty much constantly with no ability for you to limit or stop it like you can on the deskop :)
And you can never downgrade to an old version. Or add a firewall that will block ads. Or disable javascript selectively. Or control when programs can run. Or know whether they use crypto safely. Or have any control over when your phone will get patched for the 200-day level 10 RCE bug.
Now I just want to smash my phone with a hammer. Smash it into tiny tiny pieces.
Though this is not a phone app and Dropbox does have a history of mistakes causing data loss.
I assume it's true because:
"If you don’t want Dropbox Update to run on your computer, you can uninstall the Dropbox application. You can still access your files on dropbox.com and using the Dropbox mobile apps."
> Though this is not a phone app and Dropbox does have a history of mistakes causing data loss.
A history of random forum posters making huge assertions which inevitably turn out to be significantly overstated. It's trendy in certain circles to complain about Dropbox and the hype factor makes it easy to forget that for every person repeating anecdotes on HN there are a million normal people who use the service without issues.
As one of those 'random forum posters' aka Dropbox Customers who has lost data, I don't think it would be over stating it that I was fucking pissed off that my data was gone. I didn't really give a shit that other people were using the service without issues.
Its not rocket science to understand that a cloud data storage company is (a) going to have bugs, hence (b) data will be lost, and (c) customers will be dissatisfied.
The only saving grace for Dropbox is that the Google Drive windows client is a totally catastrophic data destroying pile of rubbish, and the Azure/Onedrive system is so microsofty and has no linux client either.
Again, there are people who've lost data and in some of those cases it was even caused by Dropbox — as opposed to the hardware failures or human errors which are often attributed to a service like Dropbox because that's what first made the problem visible — but that's still anecdotal rather than proof of widespread problem and, going back to the topic at hand, it doesn't tell us that the answer is to avoid installing updates. For a widely deployed consumer app, a significant fraction of the work will be defensive coding to reduce the impact of problems on the client and holding back updates will actually increase someone's exposure interval.