Ruminations on Net privacy, home safety
Share with others:
I've been collecting odd notes to share with you that are related to the tech business world. Here are two:
Although the number of people posting private information on Facebook might lead you to believe that we've all lost our sense of security and privacy, that's not the case. There are many people who are still trying to protect the privacy of our information -- personal and business -- and when they are told that their private data is being protected, they expect the claims to be true.
Christopher Soghoian, a graduate fellow at Indiana University, has filed a complaint with the FTC stating that online company, DropBox, is not following through on its promises of security. DropBox provides a cloud-based service in which you can store files on the Internet, ready to be retrieved anytime you have online access as if they are on your local PC, Mac or smartphone.
Specifically, Mr. Soghoian is referring to DropBox's claim that all files are encrypted, suggesting that nobody can read them when stored on DropBox servers. Apparently, that's not quite true, because DropBox uses an unusual means to reduce the amount of space needed to store the files.
It examines the underlying structure of the file to see whether it's the same as a file already uploaded by another user; then if it is, it simply makes a pointer to the already uploaded file. That's not exactly the same as holding your file where nobody else can see it -- although it does simulate the same type of security.
Why the fuss? Because the mechanism used by DropBox means that an employee of DropBox might be able to read the files -- or anyone else.
First Published June 12, 2011 12:00 am
