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Data and privacy

This page describes what Drive’s code does with data today, for the files an app writes under a grant.

What Drive stores

For each file:

  • its name, type, size, content, a hash of the content, its folder, tags, version number, and when it was created, last changed and moved to the trash;
  • its earlier versions;
  • a record of each change: what changed, when, and whether the person or an app made it.

For a folder Drive created for an app, it also records which app it belongs to, so the Drive app can show it.

Drive keys everything by the person’s Drive id (owner_uid in responses). That id is the same for every app the person uses.

Drive can read the files it stores: they are not end-to-end encrypted. Drive runs on AWS in the us-east-1 region (United States). Operational logs are kept for 14 days.

Who sees what

  • The person sees every file in their Drive, from every app, in the Drive app at https://drive.stackwell.tech.
  • Your app sees only the files its grant covers, and only while the grant is active. Every app whose grant covers the same folder sees the same files.
  • Other apps don’t see your app’s files unless the person approves a grant for them that covers those files.

How long

Drive keeps a file, and its earlier versions, until the person deletes it.

  • Revoking a grant stops your app’s access from its next request. The files your app wrote stay in the person’s Drive.
  • The trash: a file moved to the trash stays there, and keeps counting toward the person’s storage, until it is restored or deleted. The Drive app’s trash view tells the person whether Drive empties their trash after a set number of days.

What deleting does

  • An app can move files to the trash; it cannot delete them.
  • The person deletes a file from the trash in the Drive app. It then no longer appears in file listings or reads, its earlier versions can no longer be listed, and it stops counting toward their storage.

Not yet:

  • Permanent removal of deleted files from Drive’s storage.
  • Deleting a whole Drive at once. There is no way for a person to delete everything in their Drive in one step, and deleting the ChirpAuth account does not delete Drive data.