I use Dropbox. You can Share a file to the public, view only. I just had someone on Reddit suggest I not do that, and to make his point he used my real first name.
So what data am I exposing by doing this?
I just tried sharing a file that way via Dropbox, and nothing with my name isn’t in the URL. I guess it’s possible that the random string of characters in the link can be mapped to my account, but I find that unlikely.
What did you share? Lots of files will include metadata about the creator, so if your real name is associated with your account on the computer and you shared, say, a Word document you created, your real name could easily end up in the file. Or if you shared a photo, it probably has location metadata. Is it a photo you took in your residence, and can your name be found in, say, taxpayer rolls from that address?
Lots of ways for info to leak.
I shared a JPG photo from my phone. I didn’t check to see what metadata it had.
There isn’t any GPS data in the photo or anything else that would identify me. And the person specifically said, “Don’t dox yourself with a Dropbox link”.
Maybe somebody here can test this assertion.
I have no familiarity with dropbox, but in general when I’m wondering about something like this I open a browser that I never normally use (so no cookies, not logged in to anything), clear all history & cookies and go to “Private” browsing mode and put on a hat and sunglasses just to be sure, and paste in the link I have sent to people. This should show you what other people will see if you send them the link.
OK so I opened Firefox, which I never use, cleared all browsing data, and pasted in a link to a Dropbox file. I clicked around and found an Info icon. After clicking on that it says "Uploaded by: " followed by my first and last name.
It appears that is the only data disclosed, but it is far from anonymity. I never knew that.