Dropbox Updates Terms Of Service, Now Includes Giving Your Data To The Goverment

This isn’t great news for privacy, but it’s not the end of the world either. Dropbox updated its terms of service today to include the provision that they will give the data you store on their cloud-based servers to the government if they are asked to do so. If they do give it to the government, Dropbox will also decrypt their encryption code, but not any other personal encryption methods that you may have put on your data.

If you’re not familiar with Dropbox, it’s one of our favorite file-sharing and storing applications, even with its new terms of service. Your files can be accessed by logging in to Dropbox’s website or through a folder that acts like every other file folder on your PC or Mac. Drop a file into it and a little check mark appears next to the file when it’s synced with Dropbox’s servers. From there, you can access the file on any other computer or your iPhone.

While some may get riled up and think that the digital sky is falling and the government is watching our every move, keep in mind that Google and Amazon have similar policies in place. In fact, Dropbox uses Amazon’s S3 web server platform, which may have prompted the change in to their terms of service.

If you’re not doing anything illegal, then you really don’t have anything to worry about. But, if you don’t want anyone to see the files your putting on Dropbox, Google or any other cloud storage service, we suggest using a personal encryption tool such as TrueCrypt or ByteShift.

via Business Insider