Wired magazine says that 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,” according to a column posted on Wired’s site.
Dropbox dismissed Soghoian’s allegations.
“We believe this complaint is without merit, and raises old issues that were addressed in our blog post on April 21, 2011,” company spokeswoman Julie Supan said in a short e-mail to Wired.com. “Millions of people depend on our service every day and we work hard to keep their data safe, secure, and private.”
