Adobe Still Swears You’re Overreacting to Its New Terms of Service
Adobe is having a tough week. On Thursday, I reported that Photoshop users were receiving a pop-up asking them to agree to new terms that appeared to give Adobe access to their work. In response to the ensuing outcry from angry creators , Adobe released a response clarifying that their new terms of service document is largely the same as previous versions, with a few clarifying factors added to the update.
This only added fuel to the fire. Adobe didn’t suddenly demand access to creators’ works; rather, they seemed to be saying that they already had such access. Adobe’s press release attempted to allay concerns by stating that the company would only access cloud user data for three specific purposes: functions that require access to content (such as creating thumbnails); cloud-based features such as Photoshop’s neural filters; and to search for illegal or otherwise offensive content.
The company said it will not have access to any data stored locally and will not train Firefly Gen AI models on user content. However, a deeper dive into the terms of service reveals that Adobe takes user content from the cloud, combines it with other user content, and uses it to train its “algorithms.”
The whole thing turned into a big mess (and a hit to Adobe’s stock price ), which is probably why the company released a second statement on Monday while everyone was distracted by Apple’s WWDC announcements. Adobe says it is working on new terms of service, including clearer language, that will be available to users by June 18. It is important to note that the statement contains the following clarifications:
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Adobe does not claim ownership of your content and does not use it to train generative AI.
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You can opt out of the “product improvement program,” which collects “usage data and content characteristics” for features like masking and background removal.
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Adobe will explain what licenses they require you to use when using their products in “plain English.”
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Adobe does not in any way scan content stored specifically on your computer. However, they scan everything that is uploaded to their servers to ensure that they do not host child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
None of this is news if you’ve been following along. Adobe does want you to know that it doesn’t have access to content stored locally on your computer, and it doesn’t train its generative AI models using your content. However, they will train other AI models on your data, not the AI models responsible for creating anything. Big.
It’s nice that you can opt out of AI training if you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that Adobe has demanded quite a bit of access to your cloud content. I repeat the same advice I gave in my last article on this subject: if you need to use Adobe products and don’t want the company to have access to your work in any way, store all your data locally. This means storing all your Photoshop data on your computer or external hard drive, rather than in the cloud. It’s less convenient, but much more confidential.