The Dropbox Privacy Policy: frequently asked questions
The information in this article applies to all Dropbox users.
1. How long does Dropbox keep my files after I delete my account?
When you delete your Dropbox account, we will initiate deletion of the files you store on our Services after 30 days. If you’re a user on a team, only your admin can disable your account and delete your files.
Find more information on how long we keep deleted files.
Find more information on how long we keep e-signed documents.
2. What are Dropbox’s lawful bases for processing my data?
Dropbox processes your data (1) to provide the Dropbox Services to you pursuant to our contract with you; (2) in furtherance of its legitimate interests in operating our Services and business; and (3) with your consent. In some cases, Dropbox may process your data to comply with applicable law, legal process, or regulation; protect any person from death or serious bodily injury; or to carry out a task in the public interest.
Examples of Dropbox processing your data to provide you with the Dropbox Services include:
- Providing, updating, maintaining, and protecting our Services and business. For example, we host your files, back them up, and share them when you ask us to. We also analyze how you use the Services to help you prioritize your content and stay on top of your most important work.
- Troubleshooting issues you may encounter with the Dropbox Services. If you contact us with questions or concerns about the Services, we may use your personal information to respond.
- Billing, account management, and administrative purposes. If you sign up for a trial or purchase a paid Dropbox plan, we may collect and process payment information, including your name, credit or debit card information, billing address, and details of your transaction history.
- Sending you emails and other communications. We may contact you about important changes to our Services and Service-related notices. These communications are considered part of the Dropbox Services and you may not opt out of them.
Examples of Dropbox processing your data in furtherance of its legitimate interests in operating our Services and business include:
- Understanding how you use our Services and improving them. For example:
- We may monitor usage of the Services. If a specific feature or product is not being widely used, we may improve it to make it more useful, or decide to discontinue it.
- We may identify common file types in user accounts. We may then prioritize features that work with the identified common file types.
- Dropbox uses machine learning, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic analysis to improve the Dropbox Services and develop new features. For instance, we analyze information about how you interact with the Services to optimize the design of our user interface, improve the way our algorithms suggest content and personalize your experience, refine the relevance of search results to help you find what you’re looking for, and develop new ways to assist your workflow. For example:
- We may review which of a given set of search results you click on for a given search term, so that we can modify our search model to provide more relevant results. This can be done manually by Dropbox employee, or as part of a machine learning model that takes user search result selection as an input.
- We may build models that identify keywords and topics from a given document. These models may be trained on your documents and metadata, and power features within Dropbox such as improved search relevance, auto-sorting and organization features, and document summaries.
- If you use Dash Answers, we may manually review questions you ask and the responses you receive. If we determine that nonsensical or unhelpful answers are being provided, we may then modify the machine learning models that power Answers to eliminate or reduce unhelpful and incorrect answers.
- Promoting Dropbox Services that are most relevant to your interests. For example, we may collect information from you if you interact with Dropbox representatives at an event, download marketing or educational materials from our website, or interact with a specific feature. We may use the information you provide to send you additional marketing materials.
- Investigating and preventing security issues and abuse of the Dropbox Services or Dropbox users. For example, we analyze things like IP addresses, login history, and email and password changes to detect and respond to abusive behavior.
- For the DocSend portion of the Dropbox Services, conducting analytics and reporting on industry trends on content usage and performance.
Examples of Dropbox processing your data with your consent include:
- Sending you marketing materials about our Services. If you don't wish to receive these materials, simply click the Unsubscribe link in any email, or update your preferences in the Notifications section of your Dropbox account.
- Connecting your Dropbox account with other third-party services via Dropbox APIs.
- Collecting feedback from you to improve our Services and develop new features.
3. How does Dropbox collect and use my usage information?
We collect information about how you use the Services, including actions you take in your Dropbox account, to efficiently and reliably provide the Dropbox Services. We also use such information to improve our Services and develop new features, protect Dropbox users, and, in some instances, promote the Dropbox Services. For example, to provide the Dropbox Service and help you prioritize your work, we analyze your usage activity to recommend content that you might find most relevant and important. To improve our Services, we collect information about how you interact with our Services to understand what features are most useful to you and improve them. To protect Dropbox users, we analyze things like IP addresses, login history, and email and password changes to detect and respond to abusive behavior. To promote Dropbox Services, we will, in some instances, analyze information about users’ activity and level of engagement with our Services—such as how many devices they’ve connected to their Dropbox account and how much storage space they’ve used—to identify users who may be interested in our premium services.
In certain cases where we no longer need data to be attributable to an individual, we will de-identify the data. For example, we use de-identified customer feedback to improve our products and services. Dropbox takes measures to ensure that data can't be re-associated with an individual by using a combination of methods such as anonymization, aggregation, and generalization. Dropbox does not attempt to re-identify any de-identified data.
4. How does Dropbox use my personal information for machine learning, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic analysis?
Dropbox does not process data using machine learning, artificial intelligence, or algorithmic analysis in a manner that produces legal effects or similarly significant outcomes. However, Dropbox does process your personal data using machine learning, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic analysis technologies to provide, improve, protect, and promote the Dropbox Services. For example:
Provide Dropbox Services. We use machine learning, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic analysis to make it easier for you to find, retrieve, organize, and prioritize Your Stuff, collaborate with those you work with most, and stay focused on your most important work. For example, we analyze your account activity and usage history to suggest content in your Dropbox account that you might find most relevant, predict and auto-correct search queries to help you find what you’re looking for, and troubleshoot issues you may be experiencing with the Dropbox Services.
Protect Dropbox Services. We use machine learning, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic analysis on things like your IP address, login history, and account changes (such as email address and password changes) to detect and respond to abusive behavior and content on our Services.
Improve Dropbox Services. Dropbox uses machine learning, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic analysis to improve the Dropbox Services and develop new features. For instance, we analyze information about how you interact with the Services to optimize the design of our user interface, improve the way our algorithms suggest and personalize content, refine the relevance of search results to help you find what you’re looking for, and develop new ways to streamline your workflow.
Promote Dropbox Services. We will, in some instances, use machine learning, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic analysis to identify users’ activity and level of engagement with our Services by looking at things like how many devices they’ve connected to their Dropbox account, how much storage space they’ve used, the content of their files, and how many sharing actions they’ve taken to identify and market to users who might be interested in learning more about our premium Services.
5. What trusted third parties does Dropbox share my personal information with?
In order to provide, improve, protect, and promote our Services, Dropbox shares your personal information with trusted third parties, as well as other Dropbox Companies.
Trusted third parties are companies or individuals that Dropbox engages to provide, improve, protect, and promote Dropbox Services. For example, trusted third parties may access your information to provide data storage services, IT services, or customer support services, but will only do so to perform tasks on Dropbox’s behalf. Dropbox remains responsible for the handling of your information per our instructions. Trusted third parties include:
- Amazon Web Services, Inc.
- CloudConvert (Lunaweb, Inc.)
- Concord Technologies Corporation
- Dropbox, Inc.
- ElasticSearch
- FileStack
- FullContact
- Google LLC
- IDnow GmbH
- Intercom, Inc.
- Mailgun Technologies, Inc.
- MaxMind
- Metrics Enterprises, Inc. (Kissmetrics)
- NG Communications bvba
- OpenAI, Inc.
- Oracle America Inc.
- Salesforce.com, LLC
- SnapEngage, LLC
- Stripe
- Teleperformance A.E.
- Twilio, Inc.
- Voxbone, S.A.
- Zendesk, Inc.
- Zoom Video Communications, Inc.
6. Who are the Dropbox Companies and what are Dropbox Company Services?
In addition to the services offered by Dropbox, Dropbox owns and operates each of the companies listed below, in accordance with their respective terms of service and privacy policies. Together with Dropbox, these companies are the Dropbox Companies. Dropbox shares infrastructure, systems, and technology with other Dropbox Companies, and will share your information within our family of companies to provide, improve, protect, and promote Dropbox Company Services. Dropbox Company Services are the Dropbox Services and other products and services provided by the Dropbox Companies that are subject to separate, standalone terms of service and privacy policies.
Dropbox processes your information across the Dropbox Companies as permitted by applicable law and in accordance with each company’s respective terms of service and privacy policy. For more information on the Dropbox Companies’ privacy practices and how they handle individuals’ information, please visit the following links:
- At this time, there are no additional Dropbox Companies.
7. How do I request deletion of, or object to or limit the use of, my personal data?
You can request that we stop, limit our use of, or delete your personal data in certain circumstances—for example, if we have no lawful basis to keep using your data, or if you think your personal data is inaccurate.
You can also choose to receive marketing messages from us. You can select which kinds of marketing messages you want to receive at any time by editing your preferences in the Notifications section of your personal account or by clicking the Unsubscribe link in any categories of emails you no longer want to receive.
If your account information is inaccurate, you can update or delete it at any time by signing in to your account and going to your account page. You can also delete your Dropbox account at any time.
If you believe that Dropbox has no lawful basis for using your personal data, believe there are other inaccuracies in your personal data, or wish to object to the use of your personal data, please let us know by contacting us at privacy@dropbox.com and we’ll look into it. To request that your personal data be deleted, please go to the Privacy tab in your account settings, or fill out this form. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. We won't discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.
8. How can I access my personal data?
You can access the files you save in your Dropbox account at any time. If you have the Dropbox desktop app installed, you can store all of your files directly on your computer.
For information about your account and hardware associated with your account, simply log in to your account page. Here, you can find the name and email address associated with your account, as well as the IP addresses of connected sessions and computers and mobile devices used to access your account. You can also see apps connected to your account from the security page.
If you’ve been in touch with the Dropbox support team, you can log in to our customer service portal and get a record of your communications with us.
If you would like to submit a data access request, please go to the Privacy tab in your account settings, or fill out this form.
9. I want to use another service provider. How do I move my data from Dropbox?
You can download your files from your Dropbox account at any time. There are a number of ways to do so.
If you use the Dropbox desktop app, you can move a Dropbox folder to another location on your hard drive or to an external hard drive.
If you use dropbox.com to access your account, you can easily download individual files or folders from dropbox.com. To download individual files from dropbox.com:
- Log in to dropbox.com.
- Find the file you want to download.
- Click ☑ (more options) to the right of the file’s name.
- Click Download.
You can also download entire folders into a ZIP file from dropbox.com (note that there are limits on how large the folder can be).
If you use the Dropbox mobile app, you can download individual files onto your device to view offline.
If you use Dropbox Paper, you can export your Paper documents from dropbox.com.
If you use Dropbox Sign, you can download your signed documents from hellosign.com or the mobile app.
If you use DocSend, you can download your content from docsend.com.
10. What categories of personal information are included in the information Dropbox collects and discloses to trusted third parties?
“Account information” means information about your account. This includes your identifying information, which could be your real name, alias, unique personal identifier, or online identifier, and it could also include other personal information like your postal address, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, profile picture or other similar identifiers. “Account information” could also include commercial information, such as your purchasing or consuming history or tendencies.
“Your stuff” is what you decide to store in your Dropbox account.
“Contacts” includes identifying information about contacts that you’ve chosen to give us access to. It can also include identifiers such as a real name, alias, or email address.
“Usage information” includes information relating to your use of the Services. Because Dropbox provides online services, this may include internet or other electronic network activity information, such as information regarding your interaction with websites, applications, or advertisements.
“Device information” refers to information about the particular devices you use to access the Services, which may include Usage information or device-specific information, such as an online identifier or Internet Protocol address, or geolocation data.
“Cookies and other technologies” refers to technologies like cookies and pixel tags. These technologies can lead to the collection of online identifiers, Internet Protocol address, or other similar identifiers, as well as Usage information.
Dropbox has collected and disclosed the categories described above to trusted third parties in the preceding 12 months.
11. How many personal data requests does Dropbox get, and how does Dropbox respond to them?
Dropbox has a team of specialists dedicated to responding to personal data requests received via privacy@dropbox.com from users all over the world. You can find information on the volume of personal data requests Dropbox received and processed in the 12 months preceding June 30, 2024, in the table below:
| Type of request | Received | Complied with (in whole or in part) | Denied (due to failure to verify or no account) |
Average response time
|
| Access | 172 | 75 | 97 | 0.45 days |
| Deletion | 3,810 | 3,800 | 10 | 0.25 days |
| Objection to processing | 758 | 758 | 0 | 0.30 days |
| Do not sell | 620 | Dropbox does not sell personal data | Dropbox does not sell personal data | 0.20 days |
12. What data does Dropbox collect when I use the Dash browser extension and desktop app?
When you use Dropbox Dash, Dropbox will import your browser history, starting with the previous 90 days, to power features such as searching across your open tabs. The data collected includes the URLs of websites you have visited, as well as the contents of those websites (including page titles, images, and page content). To power Dash's search functions and other features, we may share your data with trusted third parties, as well as other Dropbox Companies.
13. How does Dropbox take action against user content that violates its Acceptable Use Policy?
To protect Dropbox users and our Services, Dropbox may, in its discretion, enforce our Acceptable Use Policy by using hash-matching technology and human review to evaluate potentially violative content and take appropriate action. In addition, our highly trained team of reviewers swiftly reviews reports of abuse on Dropbox submitted through Dropbox’s abuse reporting tool. Dropbox endeavors to enforce our policies fairly and consistently. More information on Dropbox’s enforcement of its Acceptable Use Policy may be found at Dropbox’s Transparency Report.
