Photoshop maker Adobe has made changes to its terms of service that give it the right to view your files and existing projects in the name of content moderation, clashing with its user base.
In Adobe’s words, the changes mean the company “can access your content through automated and manual methods, such as for content review.”
Adobe’s reasoning for giving itself the right to curate user content is to detect and remove illegal content, such as child sexual abuse material, as well as abusive content or behavior, including spam and phishing.
The company also cited the emergence of generative artificial intelligence, a breakthrough technology that makes it easier to create lifelike images and human-sounding text and audio.
It’s not the only company doing this. Google uses a combination of automated scanning and manual review to detect CSAM, and Microsoft does something similar.
What are the changes at Adobe?
There have been four changes to the Terms of Service, the first two of which occurred in Sections 2.2 and 4.1. In Section 4.1, Adobe says “If any of your content is found to violate the Terms, we reserve the right (but have no obligation) to remove content or restrict access to content, services, and software.”
Additionally, Section 14.1 reduces the number of days a user can file a formal dispute from 60 to 30 days, while Section 5.3 states that Adobe now reserves the right to remove content from inactive accounts. Adobe said it will try to provide notifications to inactive accounts to help them avoid deletion, but did not specify how long an account must be inactive before it is deleted.
The first two changes have the creative community angry about the classic double-edged sword of privacy and security.
These wordings appear to be specific to archives uploaded to Adobe Cloud as part of Adobe services.
Why are people angry about Adobe’s new terms of service?
The answer is simple. Adobe’s loose, broad-reaching language may give the company full authority to scan, view, and censor any content that passes through Adobe applications or Adobe cloud servers. This angered creators, who took to Reddit to complain about the changes, as many of them use Adobe products for often sensitive professional work.
One example is NDA work – content protected by a non-disclosure agreement. Creators sign such an agreement to access files and are expected to keep the files hidden from prying eyes until the confidentiality agreement expires. Understandably, people in the field don’t want Adobe to see content that creators don’t have the right to show.
In addition, creatives who tried to do something about it were met with pushback from Adobe. Earlier this week, concept artist Sam Santala posted on X about his experience of being unable to speak with an AdAdobe customer service representative, canceling his AdAdobe service subscription, and even uninstalling Photoshop without agreeing to the new terms of service.
Adobe responds with clarification
The terms of service update occurred on February 17th. It’s hard to say when users were notified about the change or first noticed it, but complaints about it have surged in recent days.
Even so, The Register notes that Adobe has been using similar language for years, so while the wording may be more explicit and disturbing, it’s not materially different than before.
Additionally, Adobe said it only scans files on its cloud service, not files on users’ PCs. According to the software giant, “Adobe only performs content analysis on content processed or stored on Adobe’s servers; we do not analyze content processed or stored locally on your device.” That sentence has not changed.
We reached out to Adobe for comment, and they referred us to a June 6 blog post that further clarified its new position.
“This update is focused on providing greater clarity on improvements to our existing review process,” Adobe said. “Given the explosion of generative artificial intelligence and our commitment to responsible innovation, we are introducing new features in our content submission review process. More manual review added.”
The blog post also reiterates that Adobe will not use files stored on Adobe Cloud to train its Firefly AI.
