The Dropbox Integration
Dropbox has millions of users world-wide and can be used to share files between individuals and organizations. How they know that the file that they have received has not been modified and is what the author intended to share?
This integration allows you to link your DataTrails tenancy directly with Dropbox to automatically record the provenance metadata of your files to your DataTrails tenancy. You have the choice whether to monitor specific directories or to even your whole Dropbox account.
During the set up process, any files found in the configured directories will have their provenance metadata automatically recorded to your DataTrails tenancy as a public Document Profile Asset.
From then on, each time a new file is created a new provenance metadata record will also be created on DataTrails and any modifications to an existing file will be recorded as a Publish Event on the correct metadata record to build an immutable audit trail.
Please note that DataTrails will never upload a copy of the file.
Recipients of the files will verify the provenance of the file by using Instaproof.
The file name and file path are masked in the DataTrails UI. This is intentional so that private information cannot be accidentally released via the Instaproof search results and because DataTrails is not intended to replace the excellent file management functionality that is already provided by Dropbox.
Knowledge of the filename is not needed to prove provenance because Instaproof will attest and verify the content of a file even if the filename has been changed.
Taken together this means that DataTrails provides an easy but light touch way to record provenance metadata from Dropbox. Once it is configured you can effectively forget about the connection between DataTrails and Dropbox and carry using Dropbox exactly as before!
For a step-by-step setup guide please refer to this article in our documentation.