Adobe has just updated its usage policy to reserve the right to “access, view or listen to” the content that its customers generate and store in their cloud services. The measure sparked concern among users. They accuse that the company forces them to accept terms and conditions that put intellectual property and privacy at risk.
Customers maintain that the language used in the new regulations is vague and suggests that the company is using completed or ongoing projects to train Firefly, its generative artificial intelligence (AI) model.
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The current provision came into effect last February and was notified in recent days through a message sent to subscribers. It dictates that the Adobe team may “access, view or listen to” the content through automated and manual methods, but only to a limited extent and as permitted by law. “For example, in order to provide the services and the software We may need to view, listen to or access your content to respond to comments and support requests; detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security, legal or technical issues, and enforce the terms of use. Our automated systems may analyze your content using techniques such as machine learning in order to improve our services, programs, and user experience.”
Duncan Jones, a Hollywood filmmaker, noted that the terms force creatives to sign a contract that allows the organization to use their work to satisfy its own interests. Sam Santala, founder of Songhorn Studios, shared that he attempted to uninstall Photoshop following the change, but was unable to do so without accepting the new terms. He expressed concern about Adobe being able to extract and use subscribers’ creative projects, even though many of them may be under a confidentiality agreement.
Adobe responds to the controversy
Adobe’s communications team has published a document to address these concerns. It said the modification to its terms of use is intended to provide greater “clarity in some specific areas” for Adobe Creative Cloud and Document Cloud users. He explained that the corporation requires a limited license to access content in order to operate or improve its solutions, to enforce its terms based on the law and avoid cases of abusive or illegal use.
“Adobe does not train Firefly Gen AI models with customer content. Firefly’s generative AI models are trained on a dataset of licensed, public domain content whose copyright has expired. The company will never take ownership of a client’s work,” he emphasized.
Analysis of content hosted on cloud services has been part of Adobe’s policy for some time. The firm indicates in a frequently asked questions section updated in February 2024 that “it may analyze your Creative Cloud or Document Cloud content to provide product features and improve and develop our products and services. “Our equipment and tools examine only material processed or stored on Adobe servers.” It adds that customers can choose to deactivate the inspection mechanism from the settings section of their accounts.
Adobe confirmed that its terms of use will be modified again this week. He reiterated that “there is no ambiguity in the position, commitment to customers and responsible innovation in this space. “We have never trained generative AI with customer content, nor have we taken ownership of the work or allowed access to customer content beyond legal requirements.”
Scott Belsky, Adobe’s chief product officer, acknowledges that “the wording of the rule is not clear. We have had similar conditions in our policy for over a decade, but trust and transparency could not be more crucial these days and we must be precise when it comes to communicating terms of service.”
Adobe has suffered a reputational crisis as its products grow in sophistication, adoption and number. There are solutions similar to Photoshop, Illustrator or Premiere Pro on the market. However, these programs have become the industry standard. The company has been singled out in the past for eliminating its one-time purchase model in favor of a subscription system. Analysts and regulators have warned of a possible monopoly.
