My account was deleted after being removed from Business team

[796973635]

A couple weeks ago someone from another company invited me to their Dropbox Business Team. I clicked on the link, but I didn't realize it was going to add me to their group so I contacted Dropbox about this and was told to have the Team Admin follow steps to change my account to a basic account. I sent the Team Admin (person from another company) the instructions and I got an email saying my account was deleted. I am not able to log into my account at all now. I thought this would keep my account but switch it from a Dropbox Business Account to a basic account. Is there a way to get my basic account back? I had a Dropbox Plus account that I was paying for and has a lot of files on it too.

[Post restored by moderator]

[Jay]

HI @BenjCell, if you were part of a Dropbox Business team, and it's been longer than 7 days, then it wouldn't be possible to recover the account.

However, the files should still be on the account, and they might be able to transfer the files to another user on the team, even themselves. Afterwards, they can share a folder to you in order to send you the files to another account you own.

[hg56lu]

I had a personal dropbox account but then a company i was freelancing for ask me to join their team which i did under the same email address. This worked fine as my personal files seemed separate from theirs. However ive just tried to log in with my acount details and it said no account was found and ive had to sign up again! How could this happen? I dont work with this company anymore, but surely they cant delete my whole account?

[Rich]

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@hg56lu wrote:

... a company i was freelancing for ask me to join their team which i did under the same email address. ... surely they cant delete my whole account?

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Yes, they can.

When you join a Business team account, you merge your account into their team account, effectively making them the owner of your account. In order to leave the team, the team admin needs to convert your account back to an individual account. If they just remove you from the team instead, the account is deleted.

You need to contact the team admin and ask them to restore your account. Act quickly because they only have seven days from the date of deletion to restore your account. Once restored, they need to convert your account to an individual account.

[hg56lu]

The company found my account but couldnt restore it, however they sent me a link so i could access all of my files. The problem now is that this link is accessible to them, they can access my personal files. Im sure where it was linked the system said that my personal files were only accessible by me. This is not good

[Nancy]

@hg56lu, it sounds like, upon deleting your Dropbox account, the admin transferred your files to themselves or another member of the team.

You can ask them to create a shared folder instead, add your files within, and share it with your new Dropbox account. After that, you can move your files out of that folder, and they won’t be able to access them any longer.

[hg56lu]

I’m downloading the files then will delete them and close my account. There’s no reason why they should’ve been able to gain access to my files. They didn’t have permissions to view them while I was linked with their team so why are they able to now? They have access to competitors files, it’s a massive breach of privacy

[Rich]

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@hg56lu wrote:
There’s no reason why they should’ve been able to gain access to my files. They didn’t have permissions to view them while I was linked with their team so why are they able to now?

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They did, sort of.

When you're part of a Business team, the team admin always has the ability to sign in as any other account that's part of the team, meaning they always had the ability to access anything in your account if they wanted to.

There are two options when joining a team. The first is to use your existing account to join the team. The second is to create a new account, your existing files are moved into the new account and you join the team with your existing account. This keeps all of your files completely separate in a new account and no one can access them.

The first option, which is what you seem to have chosen, merges your account into the team account. In doing so, the team now owns your account. Your files are kept separate and no other team user can see them, but the team admin has the ability to sign in as you if needed. In this manner, they always had access to your files. They just might not have taken advantage of it.

The issue then comes when you're being removed from the team. The account isn't yours, so if you're removed from the team the account is simply deleted, and the team admin can assign the content of your account (which they own) to another user. If they had converted the account back to an individual, then your files would have been exactly how you left them and no one would have had access, not even the team admin.

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They have access to competitors files, it’s a massive breach of privacy

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This comes down to not understanding the options that were available when joining the team. If you had chosen to move your files to a new account when you joined the team, they would never have had access. I don't mean to say that the fault is yours, just that there's not a clear understanding of the options you were selecting, and that's on Dropbox for not making it completely clear. This has been an issue for a while.

[hg56lu]

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"but the team admin has the ability to sign in as you if needed. In this manner, they always had access to your files. They just might not have taken advantage of it."

How are they able to sign in to my account? I use my own personal email and password, and recovery is sent to my email.

I guess in future if im asked to use dropbox ill ask them to set up an email address for me to keep it separate. I've requested they now delete all my files but tbh im concerned that they wont, and theres no way of me knowing

[Rich]

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@hg56lu wrote:
How are they able to sign in to my account? I use my own personal email and password, and recovery is sent to my email.

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It's a function of Business team accounts. The team admin doesn't need your credentials. They can simply select "Sign in as user" within their admin console. Remember, when you merge into a Business team it's not your account anymore. It's now managed by the team admin.

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I guess in future if im asked to use dropbox ill ask them to set up an email address for me to keep it separate.

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Very sensible, and choosing the other option when joining a team would accomplish the same thing; move your files to a new account that only you control, then merge your existing (now empty) account into the team.