Dropbox Is Preparing to Launch a New Password Manager App
Last updated June 5, 2020
- Dropbox is currently beta-testing a new password manager app for iOS and Android.
- The app will use a system of “zero-knowledge encryption,” and possibly also native integrations.
- For now, the beta testing is closed, while the app may be limited to Dropbox Plus users only.
Although no formal announcements have been made yet, people have spotted a new password manager app that was silently pushed on the Google Play Store as well as the Apple App Store. Dropbox released the app's testing version on the official Android and iOS stores, but that doesn’t mean that everyone can join the beta program and take the software for a spin. The testing program is closed, which means that only people who have an invite and valid testing credentials can participate for now.
Source: Google Play Store
And this is not the end of the restrictions for Dropbox’s upcoming password manager app. According to the description, it will only be made available to the platform’s paying customers - so it will be a part of the premium Dropbox experience if you like. As for the features, it comes with the “typical” one-click sign-in, credential storing, auto-syncing across multiple devices, and unlimited support for websites and apps. So, there’s nothing abnormal or weird about this new password manager, at least not in terms of what features it's offering. In the security field, the only aspect covered in the description is that the software will use “zero-knowledge encryption.”
Source: Google Play Store
Zero-knowledge is a term used to denote that the service provider -Dropbox, in this case - doesn’t get to learn anything about the content of the data you store on their servers. For this to work, the encryption and decryption keys will have to stay locally on the user’s device, and Dropbox shouldn’t have a copy of these keys stored on their systems. Our files, passwords, confidential notes, and codes are still stored on "another person's computer," but they are not in a readable form. Thus, only the data's owner can access the associated information.
Nothing else is known about Dropbox’s new password manager, so we will have to wait and see what integrations it will come with, when it will exit the closed beta testing phase, and if there will be a plan for non-Plus customers eventually. These elements will determine the business model that the company envisions for the new tool, and whether it will compete with established apps in the market or if it will merely serve as a tool that complements the security experience for paying customers.
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