A few days ago an article about Dropbox News of the newly enabled default settings quickly spread across social media.ShouldSetting up to allow sharing of Dropbox data to OpenAI, used for an experimental AI Driver search functionHowever, Dropbox says that data will only be shared if it is actively used. However, Dropbox says that data will only be shared if the feature is actively used.Dropbox also notes that user data shared with third-party AI partners will not be used to train AI models and is deleted within 30 days.
Despite Dropbox's explicit data privacy assurances on its AI Privacy FAQ page, some Dropbox users are still uneasy after discovering that the setting is enabled by default. First to notice the setting was writer Winifred Burton, who shared information about the third-party AI setting via Bluesky on Tuesday. Since then, Karla Ortiz, a frequent critic of AI, has shared more information on the X platform.
On Wednesday afternoon, Dropbox's CEO Drew Houston apologized for causing customer confusion in a post on the X platform, writing, "The Third Party AI switch in the Settings menu enables or disables access to DBX AI features and functionality. Whether it's this or any other setting.No Dropbox customer data is automatically or passively sent to third-party AI services..
Critics say communication about the change could have been clearer, with AI researcher Simon Willison writing.Here's a great example of how careful companies need to be in clearly communicating that AI accesses personal data.
So why would Dropbox send user data to OpenAI? In July of this year, the Dropbox Inc. announced an AI-driven feature called DashThis feature allows AI models to perform comprehensive searches across platforms such as Google Workspace and Microsoft Outlook.
According to Dropbox's Privacy FAQ, the third-party AI opt-out setting is part of "Dropbox AI alpha," a conversational interface for exploring the contents of a file, which involves chatting with a ChatGPT-like bot using the "Ask about this file" feature. In order for this to work, an AI language model similar to the one that drives ChatGPT (e.g., GPT-4) needs access to your files.
The FAQ also notes that the third-party AI switch in the account settings is on by default if "you or your team" are participating in the Dropbox AI alpha.However, when several users checked, they found that even though they knew nothing about Dropbox AI alpha, the setting was enabled by default.
In response, Dropbox released a statement saying, "The third-party AI switch is only turned on to give all eligible customers the opportunity to check out our new AI features and functionality, such as Dropbox AI. it does not enable these features without notice. Any features that use third-party AI will disclose the third-party's use and link to settings they can manage. Only after a customer sees the third-party AI transparency banner and chooses to continue asking questions about a file will that file be sent to the third party to generate answers. Our customers remain in control of when and how they use these features."
Currently, Dropbox onlyThe third-party AI provider is OpenAIDropbox writes in its FAQ, "OpenAI is a company that researches advanced language models andadvanced AI technologyAIResearch organizations. Your data will never be used to train their internal models and will be deleted from OpenAI's servers within 30 days." It also says, "Only content related to explicit requests or commands will be sent to our third-party AI partners to generate answers, summaries, or transcriptions."
If you prefer not to use the Dropbox AI feature, disabling it is simple. Sign in to your Dropbox account in your desktop web browser and click on your profile photo > Settings > Third-party AI. This link may take you to that page more quickly. On that page, click on the "Use third-party partners' artificial intelligence (AI) so you can work faster in Dropbox" switch and toggle it to the "Off" position.