Slashdot Mirror
Dropbox Kept Files Around For Years Due To 'Delete' Bug (bleepingcomputer.com)
Dropbox has fixed a bug that caused old, deleted data to reappear on the site. The bug was reported by multiple support threads in the last three weeks and merged into one issue here. An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: In some of the complaints users reported seeing folders they deleted in 2009 reappear on their devices overnight. After seeing mysterious folders appear in their profile, some users thought they were hacked. Last week, a Dropbox employee provided an explanation to what happened, blaming the issue on an old bug that affected the metadata of soon-to-be-deleted folders. Instead of deleting the files, as users wanted and regardless of metadata issues, Dropbox choose to keep those files around for years, and eventually restored them due to a blunder. In its File retention Policy, Dropbox says it will keep files around a maximum 60 days after users deleted them.
I wonder if other cloud service providers have such 'bugs'.
Funny how for exactly 8 years, this internet company managed to accidentally not delete documents that its users asked to be deleted in confidence, and a week after a new administration takes power, they magically find out that they weren't deleting any documents and now they have to be purged.
It's almost like someone wanted to keep these deleted documents around so they could comb through them to find patterns, or something. It's a good thing that our government isn't spying on us through our social media sharing sites, or something.