Murena Workspace automatic data upload

Using /e/OS murenacloud
1

I decided to try Murena workspace with a free account and linked it to the Fairphone Gen 6 I got with /e/os last week. Almost as soon as I did this, and with out asking for permission or even telling me that it was going to do this, it tried to upload all my phone’s data to the cloud, immediately filling up the free 1 gb.

I eventually found How does eDrive sync work via some other topics here, and found the settings – in the account settings not in the Workspace setting where I expected – to control what is synced, and ultimately just removed the account and the workspace app from my phone entirely.

But this is not ok! Murena’s whole thing is that they care about privacy, it should not be uploading my data to their server without informing me or getting my consent!

It’s not clear if there’s even a way to choose which (if any) files I want synced before adding the account and having it start syncing automatically.

After this, I have serious doubts about trusting Murena with my privacy.

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2

That is normal operation of the eOS phone when you create your account, it syncs the data with the cloud.

You must have created your account when you used the workspace? If you create an eOS account you consent. Or do I misunderstand your question/comment?

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The issue is that I was not aware that I was agreeing to that. Neither when signing up for the Murena account, nor when adding the account to my device, was I told that it would automatically start syncing a large amount of my data to the cloud, without even asking me what I wanted to sync first.

It’s possible I missed something major, but it doesn’t seem like something it should be easy to miss, and there should really be a way to select what I want to sync before the automatic sync starts.

4

the first time setup wizard has some wording that explains what will happen if an account is added to the device

old screenshot (2022)

eelo-first-time-setup-wizard-murena-id
eelo-first-time-setup-wizard-murena-id483×797 26.2 KB

(old, one can skip this step now)

“This will enable to synchronize your emails, contacts, calendar eents, pictures, videos, notes and tasks across this phone and your personal cloud”

Maybe something like this could warn users when doing it at a later time through Settings → Accounts, do you think that would’ve helped ?

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It might have, but the wording isn’t very good. “enable to” implies to me that it won’t automatically happen, that I will have the option to do so later. If it just said, “This will synchronize your emails, contacts, calendar events, pictures, videos, notes and tasks across this phone and your personal cloud” that would have been more helpful!

I also think it needs an option to select what to back up before it starts doing so, rather than having to find the option after it fills all 1 gb trying to upload your pictures and videos.

Also, I didn’t do it through Settings → Accounts, I did it through the Workspace app, which added an additional layer of confusion because the Workspace app didn’t ask for and didn’t have access to my files, and the options to control what is synchronized were under Accounts, not under the Workspace app.

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unintentionall fill up of the murena space quota through enabling the file sync comes up at times here on the forum. To make it heard that user education is lacking through the Murena Workspace app, it has to go to the backlog in some structured form.

(Missing granularity on file sync is a sub-issue that comes up too mostly with filled quotas too)

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