Dropbox has announced that it has acquired the technology from German cloud privacy company Boxcryptor to bring end-to-end encryption to its business users. The company stopped accepting new users on November 29.
Dropbox does encrypt files transferred between its servers and the destination. However, the file-sharing service has access to the encryption keys, meaning it can access the files if it chooses.
Boxcryptor provides an additional layer of protection, the “zero knowledge” encryption, that gives users control over who can decrypt their files and it had been a popular tool for encrypting files before uploading them to cloud storage providers such as Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud and more. This extra layer allowed people to take advantage of Big Tech cloud storage but to also have the benefit of preventing the providers from seeing their files.
In a blog post, Boxcryptor founders Robert Freudenreich and Andrea Pfundmeier said that the company’s “new mission” will be integrating its technology into Dropbox.
“By providing our technology and deep-expertise to a global tech company like Dropbox, we’ll be able to better scale our security capabilities through Dropbox’s global platform and provide an elevated encryption experience for users,” they wrote. “This will ensure even more people are able to focus on the work that matters, knowing that their content is even more safe and secure.”
Boxcryptor will continue supporting existing customers until the expiration of their contracts. The company insisted that no data, keys, or contracts will be transferred to Dropbox, and that everything will remain in its data centers in Germany.
