Dropbox tackles security fears surrounding its Mac app

Dropbox has already raised some eyebrows over its requests for ever-deeper access to your computer, and recent discoveries aren't helping things much. Users now claim that Dropbox's Mac app asks for overly broad permissions, swipes your password and even hacks the operating system. The cloud storage service denies the claims and is trying to allay those fears, though. Desktop app team member Ben Newhouse has responded to concerns on Hacker News with both an explanation of design decisions and a promise to improve its transparency.

The app only asks for the permissions it needs, Newhouse says. It uses the Mac's accessibility kit for certain tie-ins (such as in Office), and demands elevated access to your OS when standard programming interfaces fall short. The permissions aren't as "granular" as Dropbox would like, the developer adds. He stresses that Dropbox can't see your system's administrator password, and a privilege check on startup is only to make sure the software works consistently, especially across OS versions.