Dropbox does not admit that some researchers obtained access σε μη ανώνυμα data users of the service.
Let's see how everything started:
A study that was published on Friday of Northwestern University researchers reportedly drew information from a Dropbox information manager. The study dealt with how collaborative platforms are used by different groups of people.
The research states at one point that Dropbox "gave [researchers] access to dossier data" for two years from about 400.000 users at 1.000 universities. According to the publication, the data were "collected and anonymized" by the researchers.
The researchers said the data included "the total number of folders, the structure of each folder and access to shared folders". But according to investigators, they and Dropbox employees "could not see personal information."
Nevertheless, the researchers claimed to see “every folder on Dropbox associated with a particular researcher, those with whom the folder was shared, how often the folder was accessed, anyone associated with it, the duration of each project's stay, and how users managed their time in the various projects.”
The above reports led to many Twitter protests from well-known academics.
On the other hand, Dropbox denied all of the above with a statement posted electronically to ZDNet:
"The article contained factual errors that we are trying to correct," said MsfaceDropbox Press Elisa Pandolfi.
"To be clear, before giving Dropbox user data to researchers, Dropbox permanently anonymized it, making any identifiable user information unreadable, such as emails and shared folder IDs."
"This process prevented [the researchers] from seeing any of the personal information, but allowed them to analyze the data anonymously," the statement said.
On the other hand, it is not known if their data was explicitly requested by those who used their data. DrOpbox has not responded for the time being. Also, it is not clear what the role or access of the company employee in the data and why Dropbox did not check the results before they were published.
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