Adobe Photoshop’s Updated Terms of Service Grants Them Permission to Access Your Creations

Adobe addressed the issue twice—once on Friday and again on Monday—hoping to provide clarity on their updated terms of service. They stated that a new version of the terms will be available for customers to accept by June 18. However, despite these explanations, little has changed, and the situation remains largely the same as it was on Thursday.

This week, when creators launched Photoshop, they were greeted with a pop-up notification about updates to the terms of service. While updates to terms are common and many users likely bypass such pop-ups without a second thought, what Adobe has done goes much further. Upon reviewing the details, creators realized that Adobe wasn’t just tweaking a few permissions. Instead, the company now claims the right to access and use the work generated by these tools for a range of purposes—including, notably, for AI training.

The terms listed on Adobe’s website, dated February 17 of this year, apply to all Adobe applications. However, this pop-up seems to be the first time these changes have been brought to the attention of Photoshop users. While multiple sections of the terms outline these troubling changes, section 2.2 provides a concise summary of the issue.

2.2 Our Access to Your Content. We may access, view, or listen to your Content (defined in section 4.1 (Content) below) through both automated and manual methods, but only in limited ways, and only as permitted by law. For example, in order to provide the Services and Software, we may need to access, view, or listen to your Content to (A) respond to Feedback or support requests; (B) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, legal, or technical issues; and (C) enforce the Terms, as further set forth in Section 4.1 below. Our automated systems may analyze your Content and Creative Cloud Customer Fonts (defined in section 3.10 (Creative Cloud Customer Fonts) below) using techniques such as machine learning in order to improve our Services and Software and the user experience. Information on how Adobe uses machine learning can be found here: http://www.adobe.com/go/machine_learning.

Unsurprisingly, creators reacted negatively to the new terms. Sam Santala, the founder of Songhorn Studios, expressed his frustration on X, criticizing Adobe for essentially forcing him to grant the company full access to his work in exchange for continued use of Photoshop:

Director Duncan Jones was equally outraged, taking to social media to criticize Adobe for interfering with his movie. He called out the absurdity of requiring creators to grant access to their work simply because they’re using the company’s software to create it. Jones has since deleted the post.

Adobe’s pop-up forces creators to accept the updated terms of service before they can continue using Photoshop. Santala points out that he can’t even uninstall the software without agreeing to the new terms, effectively trapping creators: they must either grant Adobe unrestricted access to their work or be left with a useless version of Photoshop on their computers.

The social media platform X is filled with creators voicing similar frustrations with Adobe, but the company has yet to respond to the growing backlash. As of now, the terms of service still reflect these changes.