Anonymous Dropbox File Sharing Made Easy

Anonymous Dropbox file sharing can be a bit tricky, but don't worry, it's made easy with the right tools and techniques.

You can share files anonymously by using a temporary link that expires after a certain period of time, allowing you to control who has access to your files.

This feature is especially useful for sharing sensitive information, as it ensures that even if someone gets their hands on the link, they won't be able to access the file after the time limit has passed.

For example, you can set the link to expire after 24 hours, giving the recipient enough time to download the file without leaving it accessible forever.

You can use OnionShare to send files and folders to people securely and anonymously.

To share files, open a share tab, drag in the files and folders you wish to share, and click “Start sharing”. Make sure to choose the setting you're interested in before you start sharing.

To allow multiple people to download the files, uncheck the “Stop sharing after files have been sent” box. This will also allow people to download individual files rather than a single compressed version of all the files.

After someone finishes downloading your files, OnionShare will automatically stop the server, removing the website from the Internet.

You can use OnionShare to send files and folders to people securely and anonymously. Just open a share tab, drag in the files and folders you wish to share, and click “Start sharing”.

OnionShare will automatically stop the server and remove the website from the Internet as soon as someone finishes downloading your files. However, if you uncheck the “Stop sharing after files have been sent” box, people will be able to download individual files rather than a single compressed version of all the files.

To allow multiple people to download your files, uncheck the “Stop sharing after files have been sent” box. This way, people can download files one by one.

After clicking “Start sharing”, you can always click “Stop sharing” or quit OnionShare to immediately take the website down.

You can use OnionShare to let people anonymously submit files and messages directly to your computer, essentially turning it into an anonymous dropbox. This is super useful for journalists and others needing to securely accept documents from anonymous sources.

To set up an OnionShare receiving service, you can open a receive tab and choose the settings that you want. You can browse for a folder to save messages and files that get submitted.

You can check "Disable submitting text" if you want to only allow file uploads, and you can check "Disable uploading files" if you want to only allow submitting text messages, like for an anonymous contact form. This gives you more control over what kind of submissions you accept.

You can also check "Use notification webhook" and then choose a webhook URL if you want to be notified when someone submits files or messages to your OnionShare service. For example, you can use the @webhookbot on Keybase to get an encrypted text messaging whenever someone submits a file.

Click "Start Receive Mode" when you're ready, and this starts the OnionShare service. Anyone loading this address in their Tor Browser will be able to submit files and messages which get uploaded to your computer.

By default, submitted files and messages get saved to a folder called OnionShare in the home folder on your computer, automatically organized into separate subfolders based on the time that the files get uploaded. This makes it easy to keep track of everything that's been submitted.

To start an anonymous dropbox, you use the --receive flag in the command line. This lets people upload files to your computer without knowing your IP address.

You'll also want to use --persistent, which saves the Tor onion key into a file so you can start up your service with the same OnionShare address after rebooting your Raspberry Pi.

If you quit OnionShare by pressing Ctrl-C, you can run the same command again to start it up again with the same address. This is because OnionShare stores all settings, including the secret key, in the file anon-dropbox.session.

I've confirmed that persistence works, and you can see the URL is the same when you run the command again. This is important for keeping your anonymous dropbox up and running with the same address, even after rebooting your Raspberry Pi.

To make your anonymous dropbox persistent, you'll want to use the --persistent flag when starting OnionShare.

This will save the Tor onion key into a file, so if you ever reboot your Raspberry Pi, you can start up your service with the exact same OnionShare address.

The command to start OnionShare in receive mode with persistence is: onionshare --receive --persistent --public.

If you quit OnionShare and then run that same command again, it should start OnionShare again with the same URL.

You can also check if persistence is working by running onionshare-cli and seeing if the URL is the same.

Dropbox has rolled out a new feature that lets anyone upload files to your account, called "File Requests".

This feature addresses a common pain point among users who continue to share files as email attachments, which can be cumbersome to sort through.

The new feature is meant to offer an alternative to email-based file sharing, putting those in need of the files in more control.

You can specify what file or files you're looking for and are then provided a link you can distribute or have Dropbox send a request email on your behalf.

The feature can be used for a range of sharing scenarios, such as collecting bids from contractors or asking for files from clients.

It's also useful for asking family members to share vacation photos, and can even be used for complex tasks like rendering PowerPoint decks.

The feature works with larger files, like video, and can send files as large as 2 GB in size.

You can also indicate which folder should host the files as part of the request process, and then copy the link Dropbox provides or enter in the email addresses and message you want to send.

This feature is currently available for Dropbox Basic and Pro users, and will arrive for Business customers in the next few weeks.

Encryption and Security is a top priority for any anonymous Dropbox solution, and OnionShare delivers. It relies on Tor onion services for end-to-end encryption (E2EE) of connections between the Tor Browser and OnionShare.

This means all data is scrambled and unreadable to anyone intercepting it, including the server itself. This level of encryption is especially important for anonymous Dropbox, where sensitive information is being shared.

OnionShare doesn't implement its own chat encryption, instead relying on the Tor onion service's encryption, which is more than sufficient for secure communication. This approach ensures that even if OnionShare were compromised, the encryption would still protect user data.