Adobe's recent changes to its terms of use have sparked quite a debate. Understanding how to manage these settings ensures your privacy is protected.
Coming to you from Anthony Morganti, this insightful video addresses how to control what data Adobe collects from your use of their products. Morganti explains that Adobe has options allowing them to track your usage and scan stored images to improve their machine learning algorithms. This video guides you through checking if you're opted in and how to change these settings.
First, Morganti directs you to open the Creative Cloud app. Ensure you're in the Home tab, where you will see your name with a "Manage Account" option below it. Clicking on "Manage Account" opens your account page on Adobe's website. Here, you need to navigate to the "Account and Security" section, then go to "Data and Privacy Settings." Morganti shows how to find the on/off switches for sharing information about how you use Adobe apps. Turning this off stops Adobe from collecting data on your app usage.
The second toggle is for "Content Analysis for Product Improvement." This setting allows Adobe to analyze your content stored on their servers to enhance their products using machine learning. Morganti demonstrates how to turn this off if you prefer not to share your data. It's a straightforward process that puts control back into your hands.
By opting out, you ensure that Adobe isn’t tracking your usage or analyzing your stored images. This choice can help maintain your privacy and control over your creative work. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Morganti.
Humans at Adobe reserve the right to look at any images sent to their cloud services, and most of the cool new AI tools send your image to the cloud without warning. This setting does not change that.
this is the law, it requires a warrant and is meant for criminal investigations. (child pornography, and other crimes) all companies that store data have to follow this rule.. dropbox, Microsoft, google, etc.
I'm not talking about warrants and subpeonas. In the US, hosting providers are not legally required to proactively search through and look at pictures to determine whether they might be illegal, but Adobe is doing it anyway. And they seem to be using a deeply flawed AI algorithm to determine which images will be reviewed by humans; the algorithm has a ton of false positives and thus innocent pictures are likely reviewed by humans regularly. Of course, we have no idea how often, because Adobe makes no efforts to provide any transparency.
Apple, another US cloud image storage provider, gives you the option to encrypt your cloud files in such a way that even Apple (and law enforcement) cannot access them without your private key.
You have to prove what they do or don't but technically, it's Impossible to do since you can't obtain any information and even if you do, it's going to cost you a lot in legal fees. Every once in a while they will fail and you'll see a major class action but that's another story. Look at the 6% commission in real estate in the US, never was a law or anything, yet real estate companies enforced it for decades.
I'm not saying they do or don't follow the law, just that I have no trust because the technology they use and forces on us makes it impossible to provide any insurance even if they wanted to.
I just use a 2002 version of Photoshop. It's all I've ever needed.
The best way to stop Adobe, and anyone else, is to uninstall their software and choose something else to do the work. Cloud storage is not a must these days. There are plenty of ways around stopping companies from looking at your data if you really want to.
IMHO, this has to stop, and you are part of the problem if you just shrug your shoulders and allow it.
I only have Photoshop Elements. I purchased it as a download, and do not "subscribe". Nor do I use the cloud for anything. Am I safe from Adobe's intrusions?
May not be a bad idea to also check the settings in Photoshop itself. In the Preferences, look for Product Improvement.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzPE5BMBJAc&t=66s)
In addition to the opt outs, I also use Windows firewall to block various Adobe components to keep them from sending anything out. I rarely use Generative AI. I think I've only used it on 2 images. But, should I need that function in the future, I can quickly temporarily disable the blocking.