It’s not only the U.S. government that forces internet companies to hand over user data. This became widely evident following Edward Snowden’s leaks from last year. Foreign governments too regularly reach out to companies in a bid to obtain data about people they’re looking into for a wide variety of reasons. Many companies now release regular reports detailing how many requests they received and from which countries. Dropbox has announced that its yearly Transparency Report will now mention data requests by foreign governments.
Dropbox has been releasing two of these reports every year since 2012. It includes information like the number of requests received and now it’ll even tell us if foreign governments have reached out for data as well.
In an update on its blog Dropbox has said that this move will add more specificity to these reports. The company will inform people when requests about their information are received unless its legally prohibited from doing so.
Instead of only showing the number of requests that it has received Dropbox will also reveal its response in these reports. Its a crucial detail because a single request could cover multiple accounts and Dropbox reiterates its commitment to scrutinize every request to ensure “that it’s not too broad.”
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