Fact Check: Is it safe to share Dropbox with customers?

Man holding a key on his shoulder unlocking a shield with a lock inside.
By
Justin Neiman
February 2, 2021
Answer:
True

Dropbox is a great product for storing your information or information that stays within a business. Using Dropbox as a file sharing solution externally for customers or clients might not be the best idea. While Dropbox is generally secure, sharing links for clients to access files is not. Anyone that gains access to that link can view and download the files, if those files contain sensitive information and that link get's stolen or misplaced you now have an unpleasant situation on your hands. And if you happen to accidentally be in a wrong folder when you create the link it's possible to give someone access to information that is not theirs.

There are a few critical factors that are essential to the security of shared links and the data they point to. The first is probably fairly obvious: we have to trust that the person we’re sharing with doesn’t expose the link to someone else, intentionally or otherwise. The second, which I mentioned earlier, is that the URL is so obscure that it is not guessable by a human or machine.

https://www.varonis.com/blog/the-dangers-of-shared-links/

You can never eliminate the possibility of human error, it happens no matter what you do. When you are dealing with sensitive information of your clients it's better to not take that type of risk. Using another platform that is created specifically for this use case is a much better option. Zapa Client Portals was created to allow you to have full control over who has access to what. Having dedicated Portals separating your clients and having granular access to who has access to the files is critical to reducing human error as much as possible. And if a mistake does happen you have the ability to revoke permissions quickly and easily.