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]

My read is that the data is only shared when you use the AI-powered features (because sending the data is required for the AI to answer the questions/requests.) Otherwise, nothing is shared, and nothing is being used to train AI models. I don't love that the global setting is on by default, true, but it isn't a default share, either.

https://help.dropbox.com/view-edit/privacy-settings-dropbox-ai

What information is shared with third-party partners?

Your files within Dropbox are sent to a third-party AI only when you chose to interact with AI powered features. For example, when you ask a question about a file.


We only use third-party technology partners we have vetted. Their software will perform tasks with your information on our behalf, but we remain responsible for the handling of that information. Additionally, we won’t let our third-party partners train their models on our user data without consent.

[disneydream06]

Thank goodness I don't use Dropbox. :o
Hugs, Jon

[silveradept]

It's always nice to know what kind of opinion a company has of its users, so the users can decide they don't like being opted in to programs that they don't want to participate in and can leave the company and service. At least, for companies that aren't functionally monopolies.