Dropbox Lied to Users About Data Security, Complaint to FTC Alleges. Dropbox, the wildly popular online storage system, deceived users about the security and encryption of its services, putting it at a competitive advantage, according to an FTC complaint filed Thursday by a prominent security researcher.
The FTC complaint charges Dropbox (.pdf) with telling users that their files were totally encrypted and even Dropbox employees could not see the contents of the file. Ph.D. student Christopher Soghoian published data last month showing that Dropbox could indeed see the contents of files, putting users at risk of government searches, rogue Dropbox employees, and even companies trying to bring mass copyright-infringement suits. Soghoian, who spent a year working at the FTC, charges that Dropbox “has and continues to make deceptive statements to consumers regarding the extent to which it protects and encrypts therir data,” which amounts to a deceptive trade practice that can be investigated by the FTC. Dropbox dismissed Soghoian’s allegations. to: Dropbox Hits 25 Millions Users, 200 Million Files Per Day. Dropbox will announce a number of milestones on Monday morning, we’ve learned.
The file backup and sharing service was founded in 2007 by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi. It was in one of the early Y Combinator classes, now has 25 million users and 200 million files are “saved” daily, and more than 1 million every five minutes. That’s impressive growth from the 4 million users the company had a year ago (they had two million in late 2009). Insight From Dropbox: Failure Is Not The Worst Outcome, Mediocrity Is.