Do you use Dropbox? Do you like your files looked at by openAI?

[thewayne]

Dropbox has an OPT-OUT 'feature' that they've just implemented where any files that you upload to Dropbox for storage or sharing are automatically shared with OpenAI. They claim it is NOT for AI training. YAY?! But then why are they sharing it with the best-known AI company? Doesn't make sense.

Supposedly Dropbox is developing an AI-assisted cross-platform search feature that will let you search for stuff across Dropbox, Outlook email, etc. And this is in preparation for it. However, it is turned on by default. To turn it off, you have to sign on to Dropbox through a web browser and dig into your settings.

The Ars article has instructions and a link on how to deactivate it. Allegedly your data will be discarded before 30 days.

Myself, I stopped using Dropbox a couple of years ago when they capped the number of devices that could link to an account to three. While I liked the ease with which I could share links to a file, I didn't find it worth paying for when there were free options that also had file sharing.

An amusing thing about comments in the Ars article: the number of people closing their Dropbox accounts over this!

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/12/dropbox-spooks-users-by-sending-data-to-openai-for-ai-search-features/

Comments

[white_aster]

Yeah, I get what you mean about indexing, and it's a good point: how could they make an indexing service that doesn't keep your data past 30 days? I don't know, could they index, keep the files of that operation as of 12/15, then as of 12/16, then as of 12/17, etc. and then just delete the backup indexes after 30 days? That seems like it might make sense: I wouldn't want them to (and they wouldn't need to) keep an index of a file I deleted, for instance. :shruggies?:

I guess my focus in all of this is that though I don't like how the toggle was turned on by default, it still seems that even with the toggle turned on they are SAYING the data doesn't get shared unless I use Dash or any of the other features. Which...is worth what the company's trustworthiness buys. I get it. Companies use weasel words. I am a person who writes things for a living, I get exactly how to do that. But right NOW, they are saying things that don't particularly worry me. Time will tell if they're just being more nefarious than I give them credit for, I guess.