Dropbox Updates ToS, Unwittingly Sets Off New Wave of Mostly Baseless FUD

A few days ago, Dropbox updated its Terms of Service with the aim of making them more easily readable by regular users. Which it very much managed to, but, unfortunately, it's one thing to be able to read a ToS and it's another to be able to understand it.

Because, like we've seen before, it wasn't long before people started saying things like 'Dropbox now owns your data.' Why? Because it makes for a great headline. And, as long as you stand by your headline, no matter the evidence to the contrary or even common sense, then you're in the clear.

The part of the Dropbox ToS that got people all worked up described the copyright license users are granting Dropbox over their files to enable the service to manage, copy and share them with others, at the users' request.

Dropbox needs this in order to do basically anything with your files, including making them available over the web if you choose to.

"By submitting your stuff to the Services, you grant us (and those we work with to provide the Services) worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable rights to use, copy, distribute, prepare derivative works (such as translations or format conversions) of, perform, or publicly display that stuff to the extent reasonably necessary for the Service," the updated Dropbox ToS reads.

That certainly sounds menacing, that is, if you choose to leave out the part above the paragraph which reads: "You retain ownership to your stuff," and another part below which says: "This license is solely to enable us to technically administer, display, and operate the Services."

But why let this get in the way of eye-grabbing headlines and FUD. That's one of the downsides of making terms of service more readable, people are going to freak out over stuff that was already there, but they just didn't realize it.

Some people may have not known that Dropbox has access to their data. And some may be right to worry now that they realize it. But Dropbox needs this type of access to operate and it does not mean that it now owns your files, as many chose write.

Dropbox works directly with your files, while they are encrypted the encryption is done only in the cloud, Dropbox has access to the original files as well. This is the reason for the scary sounding ToS, because many of the features that make Dropbox great need the company to be able to access, copy and share your files.

Web access, sharing with the world or with friends, fast uploads of duplicate - the reason for the cloud-side encryption only, even things like thumbnails of your images when browsing them online, all require Dropbox to have a copyright license which gives it the right to manage or modify your data.

There is nothing the ToS doesn't need to be there. And if you don't like the idea of Dropbox being able to access your files, there are plenty of alternatives out there, as long as you're willing to live without things like web access, sharing and other features. But 25 million users seem to be preferring the trade-off.