Dropbox Addresses NSA Surveillance Fears in New Privacy Policy The online storage company has a new set of data request principles to guide its decision making when responding to government requests.
By Benjamin Kabin •
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Dropbox has updated its privacy policy to address privacy concerns about the National Security Agency's requests for user data.
In a new section, the company pledges to abide by its Government Request Principles when "receiving, scrutinizing and responding to government requests for our users' data."
"Stewardship of your data is critical to us and a responsibility that we embrace. We believe that our users' data should receive the same legal protections regardless of whether it's stored on our services or on their home computer's hard drive," the new policy says.
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Dropbox says it promises to fight blanket data requests and protect its systems from intrusive measures like government-installed backdoors.
The company also believes technology companies should be able to report specific numbers in terms of the government data requests they receive and that such requests should be limited to specific people and investigations. At present that isn't the case, but Dropbox, along with other outspoken tech companies, says it will work toward to change those laws.
Earlier this month, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo and LinkedIn were able to disclose some details about the requests they received from the government. The disclosures, however, are still fairly vague.
Dropbox's new privacy policy goes into effect on March 24.
