Dropbox Leading The Charge For a Privacy Revolution
Privacy practices have been an extremely hot topic these days. Facebook and Google have found themselves in hot water because of it. Popular online storage company, Dropbox, is also no stranger. Following some changes to their privacy policy and revisions to their terms of service, some users were outraged by unclear wording that lead some to believe that Dropbox claimed a user’s data as their own. Turns out their terms of service was poorly worded and Dropbox took to further revisions.
Now, Dropbox is leading the charge of what can be seen as transparency in a companies terms of service providing clear, reader friendly contractual language and letting users know exactly what they are signing up for. Here’s a quote from their new copyright section:
By using our Services you provide us with information, files, and folders that you submit to Dropbox (together, “your stuff”). You retain full ownership to your stuff. We don’t claim any ownership to any of it. These Terms do not grant us any rights to your stuff or intellectual property except for the limited rights that are needed to run the Services, as explained below. …
To be clear, aside from the rare exceptions we identify in our Privacy Policy, no matter how the Services change, we won’t share your content with others, including law enforcement, for any purpose unless you direct us to.
Now, I may not always be the brightest bulb in the box but even this is something I can read and clearly understand. No legal speak, just clear, plain English. If only more companies like Google or Facebook were more clear about their privacy practices and let users know exactly what they are signing up for, maybe the feds wouldn’t be involved as much.
[Via GigaOM]