Dropbox (storage provider) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Dropbox is a Web-based

Web application

A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are...

file hosting service

File hosting service

A file hosting service, online file storage provider, or cyberlocker is an Internet hosting service specifically designed to host user files. Typically they allow HTTP and FTP access. Related services are content-displaying hosting services A file hosting service, online file storage provider, or...

operated by Dropbox, Inc. that uses cloud storage

Cloud storage

Cloud storage is a model of networked online storage where data is stored on virtualized pools of storage which are generally hosted by third parties. Hosting companies operate large data centers; and people who require their data to be hosted buy or lease storage capacity from them and use it for...

to enable users

User (computing)

A user is an agent, either a human agent or software agent, who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified by a username , screen name , nickname , or handle, which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term.Users are...

to store and share files and folders with others across the Internet using file synchronization

File synchronization

File synchronization in computing is the process of ensuring that computer files in two or more locations are updated via certain rules....

. It was founded in 2007 by MIT graduates Drew Houston

Drew Houston

Andrew "Drew" Houston is an American internet entrepreneur and is best known for being the founder and CEO of Dropbox, an online backup and storage service. According to Forbes magazine, he has a net worth of $400 million US dollars.-Early life:...

and Arash Ferdowsi

Arash Ferdowsi

Arash Ferdowsi is an Iranian-American entrepreneur known as the co-founder and chief technology officer of Dropbox.-Career:Ferdowsi launched Dropbox in June of 2007 with his business partner at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...

as a Y Combinator startup

Startup company

A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...

.

There are both free and paid services, each with varying options. In comparison to similar services, Dropbox offers a relatively large number of user clients across a variety of desktop and mobile operating systems. There are a number of versions across many operating systems

Operating system

An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...

, including versions for Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, Mac OS X

Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

, and Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

(official and unofficial), as well as versions for mobile devices, such as Android, Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market...

, iPhone

IPhone

The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

, iPad

IPad

The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

and BlackBerry

BlackBerry OS

BlackBerry OS is a proprietary mobile operating system, developed by Research In Motion for its BlackBerry line of smartphone handheld devices...

, and a web-based client for when no local client is installed. Dropbox uses the freemium

Freemium

Freemium is a business model that works by offering a product or service free of charge while charging a premium for advanced features, functionality, or related products and services...

financial model and its free service provides 2 GB

Gigabyte

The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...

of free online storage. Users who refer Dropbox to others can gain up to 8 GB of additional free storage. The service's major competitors include Box.net

Box.net

Box is an online File Sharing and Cloud Content Management service for enterprise companies. The company has adopted a freemium business model, and provides 5GB of free storage for personal accounts. A mobile version of the service is available for Android, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and WebOS devices...

, FilesAnywhere

Filesanywhere

is the creation of Dallas-based software design and consulting firm, Officeware systems, and is a provider of remote file storage and file sharing for consumers and corporations...

, CloudMe, CrashPlan

Crashplan

CrashPlan is backup software that allows Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris users to back up their data to an offsite data center, computers belonging to friends and family, as well as to attached drives / shared folders. There is a free version and CrashPlan+ which is for backing up to CrashPlan's...

, Egnyte

Egnyte

Egnyte is a computer technology company providing cloud computing infrastructure for online file storage, file sharing and computer backup for small, medium, and large business enterprises....

, iCloud

ICloud

iCloud is a cloud storage and cloud computing service from Apple Inc. announced on June 6, 2011 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference . The service allows users to store data such as music files on remote computer servers for download to multiple devices such as iPhones, iPods, iPads, and...

, Mozy

Mozy

Mozy is an online backup service for both Windows and Mac users. The cloud service allows users to back up data continuously, manually or schedule updates. Mozy is known for offering backup storage space for home and business users. In 2011, they changed to their current tiered pricing model...

, SpiderOak

Spideroak

SpiderOak is an online backup tool for Windows, Mac and Linux users to back up, share, sync, access and store their data using an off-site server. SpiderOak allows the user to backup any given folder of his/her computer...

, SugarSync, TitanFile

TitanFile

TitanFile Inc is a Canadian company headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia. TitanFile is an online secure file sharing and email encryption service...

, Ubuntu One

Ubuntu One

Ubuntu One is a personal cloud service operated by Canonical Ltd.The service enables users to store files online and sync them between computers and mobile devices, as well as stream audio and music from cloud to mobile devices.- Features :...

, Windows Live SkyDrive

Windows Live SkyDrive

Windows Live SkyDrive, initially called Windows Live Folders, is a free-of-charge file hosting service that allows users to upload files to a cloud storage and then access them from a Web browser...

, Wuala

Wuala

Wuala is a secure online storage, file synchronization, versioning and backup, service, originally developed and run by Caleido Inc., which is now part of LaCie. Service is a combination of:...

and ZumoDrive

ZumoDrive

ZumoDrive is a cloud-based file synchronization and storage service operated by Zecter, Inc. On December 22nd, 2010, Zecter announced its acquisition by Motorola Mobility. The service enables users to store and sync files online and between computers using their HybridCloud storage solution...

History

According to Dropbox, founder Drew Houston

Drew Houston

conceived the idea after repeatedly forgetting his USB drive

USB flash drive

A flash drive is a data storage device that consists of flash memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus interface. flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 30 g...

while he was a student at MIT

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

. He says that existing services at the time "suffered problems with Internet latency, large files, bugs, or just made me think too much." He began making something for himself, but then realized that it could benefit others with the same problem. Houston

Drew Houston

founded Dropbox, Inc. in 2007, and shortly thereafter secured seed funding from Y Combinator. Dropbox officially launched at 2008's TechCrunch50

TechCrunch50

TechCrunch50 was a conference held at the Design Center Concourse in San Francisco, California on September 14-15, 2009, hosted by TechCrunch and Jason Calacanis. Its aim was to find the best Web 2.0 start-ups and launch them in front of the industry's most influential venture capitalists,...

, an annual technology conference.

Due to trademark disputes between Evenflow (Dropbox's parent company) and Proxy, Inc., Dropbox's official domain name

Domain name

A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....

was actually "getdropbox.com" until October 2009, when they acquired their current domain, "dropbox.com".

OPSWAT

OPSWAT Inc.

OPSWAT, founded in 2002 by Benny Czarny, is a San Francisco-based software company that provides software engineers and IT professionals with software development tools and data services.- OPSWAT Certification :...

reported in their December 2010 Market Share report that Dropbox held 10.41% of the worldwide Backup Client market, based on number of installations.

In May 2011, Dropbox struck deals with Japanese mobile service providers Softbank

SoftBank

is a Japanese telecommunications and internet corporation, with operations in broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-Commerce, Internet, broadmedia, technology services, finance, media and marketing, and other businesses....

and Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....

. As per the terms of the deal Dropbox will come preloaded on their mobile phones.
, Dropbox has more than 25 million users.

In May 2010 Dropbox users in China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

were unable to access Dropbox. Later, Dropbox confirmed they had been blocked by China

Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China

Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China is conducted under a wide variety of laws and administrative regulations. There are no specific laws or regulations which the censorship follows...

. Due to the fact that the censorship usually focuses on popular services only, many considered this evidence of Dropbox's rapidly rising popularity and international user base. Up to Nov 2011, the website is still blocked in China, but locally installed applications are usable with some ISPs

Internet service provider

An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...

Financials

Dropbox has received a total venture capital funding of $7.2 million from several investors, including Y Combinator, Sequoia Capital

Sequoia Capital

Sequoia Capital is a Californian venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital "one of the highest-caliber venture firms", and noted that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture-capital firms"...

and Accel Partners

Accel Partners

Accel Partners is a global venture and growth equity firm funding companies from inception through the growth stage.The firm is based in Palo Alto, California with major offices in Bangalore, Beijing, London, and Shanghai....

.

According to speculation, Dropbox's valuation is more than $1 billion. TechCrunch

TechCrunch

TechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....

, VentureBeat

VentureBeat

VentureBeat is a technology blog that focuses on innovative companies and the forward-thinking executives behind them.-History:The company was founded in 2006 by Matt Marshall. In 2008, the New York Times called VentureBeat one of the "top blogs"...

, Business Insider

Business Insider

Business Insider is a U.S. business/entertainment news website launched in February 2009. Founded by DoubleClick Founder and former C.E.O. Kevin P. Ryan it is the overarching brand beneath which fall the Silicon Alley Insider and Clusterstock verticals...

and Financial Post

Financial Post

The Financial Post was an English Canadian business newspaper, which published from 1907 to 1998. In 1998, the publication was folded into the new National Post, although the name Financial Post has been retained as the banner for that paper's business section and also lives on in the Post’s...

have also speculated that Dropbox's valuation could be as high as $5 to $10 billion.

Dropbox's annual revenue is expected to reach $240 million in 2011.

Dropbox is based in San Francisco, and is funded by Sequoia Capital

Sequoia Capital

, Accel Partners

Accel Partners

, and Amidzad. Starting in mid-2009, they began releasing new features gradually to help measure customer interest, a Lean Startup

Lean Startup

"Lean startup" is a term coined by Eric Ries, his method advocates the creation of rapid prototypes designed to test market assumptions, and uses customer feedback to evolve them much faster than via more traditional product development practices, such as the Waterfall model...

technique.

Business model

Dropbox operates on the Freemium

Freemium

Freemium is a business model that works by offering a product or service free of charge while charging a premium for advanced features, functionality, or related products and services...

financial model.

Dropbox offers a free account of 2 GB and a paid account of 50 GB, 100 GB, and a team account of 1 TB or more. The free account and the paid account are identical in all aspects except for the amount of storage space offered. Providing the free account to users costs a lot of money to Dropbox but nevertheless Dropbox continues to provide the free accounts because it benefits Dropbox in several ways. Drew Houston

Drew Houston

, the CEO of Dropbox has pointed out that:

"Most of our growth is word of mouth/viral, so free users are still valuable: we grow faster, and they refer people who might pay"

"Picking the right duration is tricky, and people add files to their Dropboxes at different rates. Many pay eventually after using the free service for a long time."

In October 2011, Forbes

Forbes

Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...

published that Dropbox has 50 million users, of which 96% are using a free account.

For a brief period of time, Dropbox operated an affiliate program whereby third parties which referred customers to Dropbox would get a small cut out of Dropbox's revenue. But this affiliate program was shut down indefinitely on November 5, 2009 because it was not providing good returns. Dropbox provided the following official explanation:

"We believe that our efforts as a company are better spent improving the Dropbox product for our customers and delivering the features that they have been asking for."

"Because we are a small company, we have to be very selective about which projects we work on, and the affiliate program didn't seem like a wise use of our resources."

Technology

Both the Dropbox server and desktop client software are primarily written in Python

Python (programming language)

Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...

. The desktop client uses GUI toolkits such as wxWidgets

WxWidgets

wxWidgets is a widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces for cross-platform applications. wxWidgets enables a program's GUI code to compile and run on several computer platforms with minimal or no code changes...

and Cocoa

Cocoa (API)

Cocoa is Apple's native object-oriented application programming interface for the Mac OS X operating system and—along with the Cocoa Touch extension for gesture recognition and animation—for applications for the iOS operating system, used on Apple devices such as the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and...

. Other notable Python libraries include Twisted, ctypes, and pywin32. The software does not use any third-party file sync or version control libraries and was built from scratch.

The Dropbox client enables users to drop any file into a designated folder that is then synced with Dropbox's Internet service and to any other of the user's computers and devices with the Dropbox client. Users may also upload files manually through a web browser. Through these usages, it can be an alternative to sneakernet

Sneakernet

Sneakernet is an informal term describing the transfer of electronic information, especially computer files, by physically couriering removable media such as magnetic tape, floppy disks, compact discs, USB flash drives, or external hard drives from one computer to another. This is usually in lieu...

(physical transportation of removable media), and other traditional forms of file transfer, such as FTP

File Transfer Protocol

File Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server...

and e-mail attachment

E-mail attachment

An email attachment is a computer file sent along with an email message. One or more files can be attached to any email message, and be sent along with it to the recipient. This is typically used as a simple method to share documents and images...

s.

While Dropbox functions as a storage service, its focus is on synchronization and sharing. It supports revision history, so files deleted from the Dropbox folder may be recovered from any of the synced computers. Dropbox's version control also helps users know the history of a file they may be currently working on, enabling more than one person to edit and re-post files without complications of losing its previous form. The version history is limited to 30 days. A paid option for unlimited version history called "Pack-Rat" is available.

The version history is paired with the use of delta encoding

Delta encoding

Delta encoding is a way of storing or transmitting data in the form of differences between sequential data rather than complete files; more generally this is known as data differencing...

technology. To conserve bandwidth and time, if a file in a user's Dropbox folder is changed, Dropbox only uploads the pieces of the file

Block (data storage)

In computing , a block is a sequence of bytes or bits, having a nominal length . Data thus structured are said to be blocked. The process of putting data into blocks is called blocking. Blocking is used to facilitate the handling of the data-stream by the computer program receiving the data...

that are changed when syncing. Though the desktop client has no restriction on individual file size, files uploaded via the web site are limited to a maximum of 300 MB

Megabyte

The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...

per file. To prevent free users (who get 2 GB of free storage) from creating multiple free accounts, Dropbox includes the content of shared folders when totaling the amount of space used on the account.

Dropbox uses Amazon

Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...

's S3

Amazon S3

Amazon S3 is an online storage web service offered by Amazon Web Services. Amazon S3 provides storage through web services interfaces...

storage system to store the files; though Houston

Drew Houston

has stated that Dropbox may switch to a different storage provider at some point in the future. It also uses SSL

Transport Layer Security

Transport Layer Security and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer , are cryptographic protocols that provide communication security over the Internet...

transfers for synchronization and stores the data via AES

Advanced Encryption Standard

Advanced Encryption Standard is a specification for the encryption of electronic data. It has been adopted by the U.S. government and is now used worldwide. It supersedes DES...

-256 encryption.

Power users have devised a number of innovative uses for and mash-ups

Mashup (web application hybrid)

In Web development, a mashup is a Web page or application that uses and combines data, presentation or functionality from two or more sources to create new services...

of the technology that expand Dropbox' functionality. These include: sending files to a Dropbox via Gmail

Gmail

Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though...

; using Dropbox to sync IM

Instant messaging

Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...

chat logs; BitTorrent management; password management

Password manager

A password manager is software that helps a user organize passwords and PIN codes. The software typically has a local database or a file that holds the encrypted password data for secure logon onto computers, networks, web sites and application data files. Many password managers also work as a form...

; remote application launching

Remote desktop software

In computing, the term remote desktop refers to a software or an OS feature allowing applications, either command line programs or graphical applications, to be run remotely on a server, while being displayed locally. Remote desktop applications have varying features...

and system monitoring; and as a free Web hosting service

Web hosting service

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing Internet...

Add-ons

There are a large number of official and unofficial Dropbox addons that are available, mostly created by the Dropbox community. These addons are both in the form of web services such as SendToDropbox (which allows users to email files to their Dropboxes) and desktop applications such as MacDropAny (which allows users to sync any folder on their computer with Dropbox). There is also a web services and browser extensions called cloudHQ for Dropbox which allows Dropbox users to synchronize Google Docs with files in Dropbox storage and also to edit Dropbox documents in the browser.

There are also a number of client applications for operating systems that Dropbox does not officially support, such as Maemo

Maemo

Maemo is a software platform developed by the Maemo community for smartphones and Internet tablets. It is based on the Debian Linux distribution, but has no relation to it...

and Symbian

Symbian

Symbian is a mobile operating system and computing platform designed for smartphones and currently maintained by Accenture. The Symbian platform is the successor to Symbian OS and Nokia Series 60; unlike Symbian OS, which needed an additional user interface system, Symbian includes a user...

.

An open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

tool called Dropship

Dropship (software)

Dropship is a set of API utilities for use with Dropbox accounts. The utilities use Dropbox's deduplication facilities to allow files, identified by their Dropbox hashes, to be copied from Dropbox's servers....

provides unauthenticated access to Dropbox-hosted files by using the Dropbox API

Application programming interface

An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...

to access files by their hash. Dropbox has attempted to squash this project by requesting its suspension where it was being hosted, and by inadvertently issuing a fake DMCA takedown notice.

Dropbox user demographics

A plurality of Dropbox users ie 32.7% are from the United States, with 6.7% and 6.5% from the United Kingdom and Germany respectively.
66.1% of Dropbox users use Windows only, 20.9% use Mac OS

Mac OS

Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...

only, 2.0% use Linux

Linux

only, and the remainder use some combination of the three.

Copyright issues

Dropbox has agreed to abide by the DMCA

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization . It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to...

copyright guidelines and therefore it has dissuaded its users from uploading copyrighted content to Dropbox's servers. Dropbox has reserved the right to delete or remove any file from users' accounts if it violates the DMCA.

Reception

Dropbox has been praised by many publications—including The Economist

The Economist

The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...

, The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, PC Magazine

PC Magazine

PC Magazine is a computer magazine published by Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009...

, and The Washington Post

The Washington Post

The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

—for its simple design and ease of use. It has also received several awards, including the Crunchie Award in 2009 for Best Internet Application; Macworld

Macworld

Macworld is a web site and monthly computer magazine dedicated to Apple Macintosh products. It is published by Mac Publishing, which is headquartered in San Francisco, California...

's 2009 Editor's Choice Award; and it has been nominated for a 2010 Webby Award, and for the 2010 Mac Design Awards by Ars Technica

Ars Technica

Ars Technica is a technology news and information website created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica is known for its features, long articles that go...

.

Dropbox has been named as the world's fifth most valuable web startup after Facebook

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

, Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

, Zynga

Zynga

Zynga is a social network game developer located in San Francisco, United States. The company develops browser-based games that work both stand-alone and as application widgets on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace....

and Groupon

Groupon

Groupon is a deal-of-the-day website that features discounted gift certificates usable at local or national companies. Groupon was launched in November 2008, the first market for Groupon was Chicago, followed soon thereafter by Boston, New York City, and Toronto...

, has been touted as Y Combinator's most successful investment to date, and is among the top 10 iPhone

IPhone

most popular apps of all time, according to TechCrunch

TechCrunch

.

Other accolades include being voted among the top 10 Android apps of all time, according to ZDNet

ZDNet

ZDNet is a business technology news website published by CBS Interactive, along with TechRepublic and SmartPlanet. The brand was founded on April 1, 1991 as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication owned by CNET...

, being recognized as one of the top 50 emerging companies by TIEcon., and called one of the 20 best startups of Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

.

Drew Houston

Drew Houston

was called the best young tech entrepreneur by Business Week, and he and co-founder Arash Ferdowsi

Arash Ferdowsi

were named among the top 30 under 30 enterpreneurs by inc.com.

Criticism

Dropbox has been criticized by independent security researcher Derek Newton, who has argued that Dropbox's authentication architecture is inherently insecure, and by software expert Miguel de Icaza

Miguel de Icaza

Miguel de Icaza is a Mexican free software programmer, best known for starting the GNOME and Mono projects.-Early years:Miguel de Icaza was born in Mexico City and studied at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México but never received a degree. He came from a family of scientists in which his...

who claims that Dropbox's terms of service contradicts its privacy policy and that the company's famous claim "Dropbox employees aren’t able to access user files" is a lie.

The service has also been criticized for not supporting the ability for users to use their own AES-256 keys and for automatically signing in.

In May 2011, a complaint was filed with the US FTC

Federal Trade Commission

The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...

alleging Dropbox misled users about the privacy and security of their files. At the heart of the complaint was the policy of "deduplication", where the system checks if a file has been uploaded before by any other user, and links to the existing copy if so; and the policy of using a single AES-256 key for every file on the system so Dropbox can (and does, for deduplication) look at encrypted files stored on the system, with the consequence that any intruder who gets the key (as well as Dropbox employees) could decrypt any file if they had access to Dropbox's backend storage infrastructure.

On 20 June 2011, all Dropbox accounts could be accessed without password for 4 hours as reported by TechCrunch

TechCrunch

. The error was caused by a code update made at 1:54 pm Pacific Time. The error was detected at 5:41 pm and immediately fixed. Less than 1 percent of Dropbox's users were logged in at that time. All logged in sessions were ended since then. All users with compromised accounts were notified by emails. Dropbox could potentially face a class action lawsuit over this incident. The lawsuit is being initiated by Cristina Wong of Los Angeles and claims violation of the California Unfair Competition Law. The suit has been filed as Wong et al. v. Dropbox Inc., No. 11-CV-3092-LB, (N.D. Cal. June 22, 2011). The suit is scheduled to be heard by U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler.

In early July 2011 Dropbox revised their Terms of Service several times after first including language that appeared to give them an irrevocable license to any material uploaded. They subsequently clarified that language in response to the maelstrom of criticism and concern that resulted from artists and corporate users with confidential data.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Financials

Business model

Technology

Add-ons

Dropbox user demographics

Copyright issues

Reception

Criticism

See also

External links