Adobe recently updated its terms of use and although companies do it all the time, these new changes have caused a lot of discord and discussion among users.
The updated terms of use give Adobe access to any type of media uploaded to its Creative Cloud and Document Cloud services, a change that immediately sparked a privacy backlash and led many users to call for a boycott. Paying customers were so upset that Adobe was forced to issue a statement clarifying what the updated terms mean and what they cover.
The changes Adobe made include changing the wording of “we could just access, view or listen to your content on a limited basis” to “we can access, view or listen to its content” and the addition of “through both automated and manual methods.” In the Content section, Adobe made changes to the way it would scan user data, adding manual mention.
Manual review (human)
In its explanation of the changes to the terms, Adobe said: “To be clear, Adobe requires a limited license to access the content solely for the purpose of operating or improving the services and software and to enforce our terms and to comply with the law, such as protecting against abusive content.”
The company further explained that Adobe apps and services can access content to perform the function for which they were designed 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 detect certain types of illegal content (such as child sexual abuse material) or others. abusive content or behavior (for example, patterns of activity that indicate spam or phishing).”
While the intentions behind these changes could be to improve service quality and ensure compliance with legal standards, allowing the company such broad access to personal and potentially sensitive content clearly seems intrusive to many users. The shift from an explicit limitation to a more open permission for content access could be seen as a step backwards in terms of user control and data protection and raises concerns about user privacy and trust, which Adobe's statement does not address. addresses completely.
On the positive side, Adobe took the opportunity to clarify that it will not use customer content to train its Firefly Gen AI models and that it will never take ownership of a customer's work.
