Adobe recently updated its terms of use, and while companies do this all the time, these new changes have caused significant disagreement and debate among users.
The updated terms of use give Adobe access to any form of media uploaded to the Creative Cloud and Document Cloud services, a change that immediately sparked a privacy backlash and led many users to call for a boycott. The paying customers were so annoyed that Adobe was forced to do so issue a statement clarify what the updated terms mean and what they entail.
The changes Adobe made include changing the wording of “we” will alone access, view or listen to your content in limited ways” to “we be able to access, view or listen to your content” and the addition of “via both automated and manual methods”. In the Content section, Adobe has made changes to the way user data is scanned by adding the manual entry.
Manual (human) review
In explaining the terms changes, Adobe said: “For the avoidance of doubt, Adobe requires a limited license to access Content solely for the purpose of operating or improving the Services and Software and to enforce our Terms to enforce and comply with the law, such as protecting against offensive content.”
The company further explained that Adobe applications and services can access content to perform the role they were designed for, and apply cloud-based effects and filters. It then said: “For content processed or stored on Adobe servers, Adobe may use technologies and other processes, including escalation for manual (human) review, to screen for certain types of illegal content (such as child sexual abuse material ) or other offensive content or behavior (for example, activity patterns indicative of spam or phishing).”
While the intentions behind these changes may be to improve service quality and ensure compliance with regulatory standards, it clearly feels intrusive to many users that the company has such broad access to personal and potentially sensitive content. The shift from an explicit restriction to a more open permission to access content can be seen as a step backwards in terms of user control and data protection and raises concerns about privacy and user trust, which Adobe’s statement does not fully address.
On the plus side, Adobe took the opportunity to clarify that it will not use customer content to train its Firefly Gen AI models and that it would never take ownership of a customer’s work.