- File-sharing apps might host recordsdata with malware
- Field and WeTransfer provide virus scanning solely with paid plans
- Information comes because the UK seeks to spice up proactive scanning of unlawful content material
Have you ever been diligently utilizing free variations of Dropbox, Field, or WeTransfer to change recordsdata about Christmas presents or New 12 months’s vacation concepts?
In that case, you may need to suppose twice earlier than clicking the ‘obtain’ button subsequent time, as these free companies might host recordsdata with viruses or malware, making you extra more likely to obtain or share dangerous content material with out realising it.
The warning comes from Surfshark, one of many best VPNs, which lately carried out an in-depth evaluation of six tremendous common file-sharing apps, to seek out out that almost all of them don’t scan uploaded recordsdata for viruses or malware.
Most free file-sharing apps could be malware traps
As per Surfshark’s findings, Field and WeTransfer provide virus scanning solely with paid plans, whereas Dropbox and iCloud don’t carry out any scanning in any respect. iCloud depends on Apple system safety for malware scanning – a pointless characteristic if run on Home windows.
These stress the everlasting reminder: repute doesn’t at all times go hand in hand with safety – notably for apps that collectively serve an astonishing 4 billion energetic customers.
Martynas Dainys, senior VPN service supervisor at Surfshark, notes that though a few of these largest operators do have the mandatory technological capabilities, they systematically select to miss safety features just because they don’t generate direct revenues.
The VPN specialist sums up the dilemma in a concise mantra: “In case you do not pay for a service, you usually turn into the product your self.”
She warns customers to position an applicable quantity of belief in these apps: in the end, any add or obtain operation represents a possible entry level that may compromise safety, notably when utilizing their free variations.
“Ultimately, it’s left to customers to make knowledgeable selections in regards to the degree of danger they’re keen to tolerate with their information.”
Though it’s apparent that utilizing a VPN with built-in antivirus would cut back a lot of the danger of malware or doable leakage of personal info, it’s nonetheless notable that these apps search to sort out these safety points by way of their paid plans, providing considerably higher safety.
For instance, Field’s upgraded service provides each antivirus and anti-ransomware scanning, WeTransfer comes with antivirus scanning, and Dropbox supplies anti-ransomware safety.
Maybe much more curiously, Google Drive and Microsoft’s OneDrive are presently the one platforms that carry out antivirus scanning when importing or downloading recordsdata at no cost customers, though Google limits antivirus scanning to recordsdata smaller than 100 MB.
Infringing privacy by mass scanning?
Surfshark’s discovery comes just as the UK’s Ofcom regulator shares its intentions to double down on file monitoring in 2026 as a part of an enlargement of the On-line Security Act.
A course of already began in 2025, which requires file-sharing companies and different user-to-user companies to take larger duty for recordsdata shared on their platforms in a bid to halt the sharing of kid sexual abuse (CSAM) and different unlawful content material.
But, Surfshark is among the many consultants warning that these scanning necessities might create huge privateness dangers by permitting exterior entities, together with corporations and the federal government, to entry customers’ whole digital lives.
Whereas it’s not unreasonable to anticipate checks of shared content material, the transfer turns into a severe privateness subject when it extends to everybody’s personal recordsdata – notably for companies reminiscent of Dropbox or cloud backup platforms which might be primarily broadly used to retailer private recordsdata.
Moreover, scanning methods usually make errors. “Common mass scanning of all recordsdata shared between individuals can be an unprecedented enlargement of mass surveillance powers, leading to many false positives, and harmless individuals having their content material flagged,” mentioned James Baker from Open Rights Group.
No matter rules, the indeniable fact nonetheless stands: utilizing your personal antivirus software program will increase safety in your system. As a result of one may properly suspect that the day we begin entrusting the well being of our recordsdata to cloud servers is also the day we lose management of our privateness.
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