iCloud May Be Secure, But Companies Prefer Their Own File Sharing Services
The Problem
For a few years, Apple’s Mail application has supported a great feature, Mail Drop, which automatically handles sending large attachments by storing them in iCloud storage and including a link in emails that expire after a period of time. Unfortunately, after many reports of government spying, talks of back doors, laws against encryption, etc., even Apple’s iCloud is looked on skeptically by many. Also, some companies prefer their own large-file-attachment services for security and network traffic reasons—I’ve used one while on contract with one company that requires a Java applet to work, and saying it’s not very usable is an understatement.
The Solution
In recent years, Apple introduced sandboxed extensions so applications may use solutions by third-party developers—things like marking up a document, using an alternate keyboard, etc., and it seems reasonable that this mechanism could be used in Apple’s Mail app to support third-party mail drop services. When I asked Apple to support this, I was told there are no current plans to add this support. It would be great if the appropriate teams within Apple changed their minds. Maybe other mail application developers will beat Apple to the punch?
What Were They Thinking? 