If we are providing web design services to you and you've registered with Purple Dog, we will ask you to set up a DropBox / Google Drive account, or if you already have an account, we'll ask for your e-mail address.
Either Dropbox or Google Drive will work for our project. We need the shared folder because it's a fast and efficient way of sharing all content (e.g. images, concepts, text files, uploads etc) that you would like to see on your new website.
Any files that you add into our shared folder can be seen by us, and vice versa. It's worth mentioning that DropBox / Drive is a cloud-based storage system, so it's best not to put any confidential information in there such as passwords or personal contact details. Whilst DropBox & Drive are secure, the information that is transmitted between your computer and DropBox / Drive should be encrypted - however, it is not good practice to store sensitive information in cloud storage facilities, unless you have added additional encryption.
It's important that you keep a copy of anything that is in your DropBox / Drive folder on your local computer. With both parties having access to the shared folder, there is a higher risk of files being accidently deleted or becoming corrupt. If you have these files backed up on your computer, it will be a simple job to transfer them back to the shared folder.