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Chadbrad's avatar
Chadbrad
Explorer | Level 3
7 years ago
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Does opening a video in mobile app count as an upload/download. I did not “save to Dropbox”

A few months ago I was on website that had Dropbox links. I selected one, and I was completely horrified with what I saw as it most likely violated the acceptable use terms Dropbox has. I never downlo...
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  • Mark's avatar
    Mark
    7 years ago

    Hi Chadbrad 

    This is really going to depend upon your locality. However, in theory, I'd imagine you will be OK. 

    It would be logged that you accessed the file (well, rather the IP would be) and if the police wanted to do so they could request info on who did access it. But I imagine it will also show how long you stayed connected to it. 

    Within the UK where I am based I know that its "acceptable" in law to view illegal content by accident as long as its closed immediately and you were not actively searching for it. 

    I imagine you are totally fine, but, for future ref. if you find anything deemed questionable please send a copy of the link to abuse@dropbox.com

Chadbrad's avatar
Chadbrad
Explorer | Level 3
7 years ago
I know Dropbox reports illegal contents when they are downloaded. Do you know if they report the user for just accessing a preview. If so then that just defeats the purpose of the preview, as it allows to see contents before downloading them.
Rich's avatar
Rich
Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
7 years ago

A preview is a download. You might not be explicitly requesting to download a file, but anything you view online is downloaded to your computer. It's just saved in your browser's cache. It may be a preview copy, meaning of lower quality, smaller, etc., but it's still a version of the file. You can't view anything online without it being downloaded.

That said, I agree with Mark. You're not going to be in trouble for clicking a link you came across online unless, of course, there's a history of searching for that type of content.

Just report the illegal content to abuse@dropbox.com.

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