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Forum Discussion
Dropbox acquires Boxcryptor. What will happen to all those files that have been encrypted?
Hi
As most will know, dropbox has purchased boxcryptor. At this point my question is, what will happen to all those files that have been encrypted with boxcryptor ? Should they all be decrypted an...
riccardo1981 wrote:
At this point my question is, what will happen to all those files that have been encrypted with boxcryptor ?
Since this is such a new development, such answers are likely not available yet, beyond what has been stated by the Boxcryptor founders (emphasis mine).
What does this mean for our users and customers?
First of all: All our existing users and customers will remain with the German Secomba GmbH with the same shareholders as during the past 10 years. No contracts, customer data or keys will migrate to Dropbox, all data will remain in our German data centers.
While we’ve sold several key technology assets to Dropbox, we will continue to service our existing users and customers pursuant to the terms of their existing contracts. However, as of today, we will not allow the creation of new accounts or purchases of any new licenses.
If you’re an existing customer, you can keep using Boxcryptor as you do today, and we’ll be in touch with more details as we join forces with Dropbox. If you’re new here and would like to stay up to date on Dropbox’s progress, join the Dropbox mailing list.
You will also find the most important FAQs regarding the next steps below.
apfund
Dropbox Product Manager
Dropbox Product ManagerHi UnicormPink , we will start to onboard first early access customers to our native end-to-end encryption implementation. We plan to release the public version in April next year.
Thank you for your patience!
You mentioned earlier in this thread that encryption is only going to be available to “business” customers. Does that include your “Essentials” plans or is this limited to what is actually named “Business” accounts (that have a 3 user minimum)? I’m willing to stick around for awhile and wait for an Essentials add-on but an upgrade to Business makes no sense for individuals - especially given that there are cloud providers that offer zero knowledge encryption right out of the box (i.e. sync.com)?
- This was never clearly communicated either, but reading between the lines I feel that such implemented encryption will really only be available for such business packages. I wonder how the owners of such business packages will encrypt their data in the meantime...
Dropbox should clarify this - and I think it would be a mistake to keep this from lower-tier paid plans because once a user leaves the service it is unlikely they simply return when this feature is added in the future (unless of course they are really unhappy with the alternative provider). So far, Dropbox got away with not having zke because of Boxcryptor and to some degree they still do because folks can use Boxcryptor as a local installation (sans mobile access, of course) - But that will eventually disappear with a future OS update that renders the Boxcryptor apps obsolete.
- Dropbox should have clarified a lot and made countless mistakes about this whole merger. You can't beat their dilettantism. I will never understand why they did everything in the worst possible way. And people still trust them with unencrypted data...🤦🏻:male_sign:
yes, you are right. As of now, there has been no official statement regarding the future of Boxcryptor and its encryption services. It is still unclear what will happen to the files that have been encrypted with Boxcryptor. It is possible that Dropbox may continue to support Boxcryptor's encryption services, or they may provide an alternative service to their users.
- apfund
Hi saima1412 , the boxcryptor team has published an official blogpost regarding the future of boxcryptor here.
Existing customers and users receive a notice of cancellation of the service and will only be able to use the Boxcryptor product until the end of their subscription. When the cancellation period is over, the corresponding accounts will be locked and the connected devices will be disconnected.
This means, that boxcryptor customers should decrypt their data by then. If there are any questions, you can reach out to the boxcryptor support team.
