Why does Dropbox ask for your computer password?

[cyberzeus]

Yeah this thread is older so if the age bothers you, then please excercise your option to not read...

Moving on, the user does actually have complete control over what they type and when.  I agree DB messed up a bit here in terms of proactively documenting what it was doing but to call this a "hack" is a bit disingenous.  DB bypssed nothing - they asked for user credenetials - user entered them - DB got the access only after said user provided assent.  Just as if you give someone the key to your house,  you cannot then blame them for tresspassing.  They didn't break-in - you gave them access.  Similarly, your password is the key to your "house" so to speak and you shouldn't provide it to anyone or anything unless you know exactly how it will be used and what will occur.  The only duty DB owes the user is to not cause any harm - so what did DB do wrong?  Did they take your data - no.  Did they damage your machine - no.  Did they harm you in any way - nope.  So at most this is a misunderstanding of what access DB was going to acquire but that misunderstanding is a direct result of the user not excercising due diligence - not DB hacking your machine.

And by the way, there is no such thing as an "admin" or "master" password on the Mac.  You have a user account password - period.  If that account is set to have admin privileges, then fine - but it is still the same user account password.  Even if you use the command line and "sudo", it is still the same user account password but with specific privileges setup.  Or if you use "su", then you still use a user account password but this time, for the user account "root".  But there is no such thing as a special "admin" or "master" password.

[Jay]

Hey @cyberzeus, I moved this post since the other one was 2 years old!

What you’re saying is correct, in that there isn’t a real hack, Dropbox does use the Mac interface to request access. It isn’t hidden, and you can refuse it.

There is more info about this here.

Hopefully this should clarify matters for everyone.

[Rich]

It would have made much more sense to leave his reply attached to the original thread. As a stand-alone post it doesn't offer much, but as part of the original thread it provided a valid counter-argument to most of the previous responses.

[cyberzeus]

Anyone have an issue with me putting a link to this thread from the thread where I orignally posted???

[Mark]

Not at all @cyberzeus as it makes no sense now that its been moved.... 

@Jay - is there any reason that this keeps happening? Its not helpful to the forums if its exactly the same issue. 

[cyberzeus]

I can't anyway - it has now been locked so in essence, there are now two islands of data that are 100% related but with zero link between the two.  Never understood how this paradigm began - In pretty much every other area of life, we keep like info together and never seperate it solely due to age...

[Rich]

Here it is:

• https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Manage-account/Why-does-Dropbox-ask-for-your-computer-password/m-p/1...