App Diagnostic and Usage Information FAQs

Last updated: 5 December 2022

Adobe’s Privacy Policy discloses how Adobe collects, uses and discloses personal information while you use or interact with our Services and Software. This FAQs provides additional information about how Adobe’s desktop, mobile and web applications (“apps”) collect, use and send personal information to Adobe about your access and use of these apps.

The app on your device automatically collects certain information about how you access and use the app or content within the app. Some of this information is sent to Adobe because it is necessary for Adobe to keep the app updated, ensure that it is performing as expected and to protect your device and information (“diagnostic information”). Other information collected by the app is optional and you can choose to opt-out of sending this information to Adobe (“usage information”). For Business Users that have been provided an Entitlement to access Adobe’s services by an organisation, some of this information may be sent to the organisation that provided you with the Entitlement (capitalised terms are defined in our General Terms of Use).

Diagnostic and usage information is associated with your Adobe account and allows us to provide you with a more personalised experience, improve app quality, reliability, features and user experience, personalise communications with you (including marketing), as well as help us to detect fraudulent, deceptive or illegal activity or misuse of Services and Software. Adobe may analyse diagnostic and usage information using techniques such as machine learning for the purposes stated.

Can I choose not to send usage information to Adobe about how I access, use and interact with Adobe apps?

Yes. You can choose not to send usage information to Adobe by setting your preferences as described below.

For desktop apps: Change your “desktop app usage” setting in your Account Management privacy page. This setting applies to how you use the features within all Adobe desktop apps, but not to the online services these desktop apps may connect with, such as Behance, Adobe Fonts, Document Cloud or Creative Cloud. This setting is not available to Creative Cloud for Enterprise or Creative Cloud for Education members, as the collection of desktop app usage information is disabled for these users. For more information, see “What options do Enterprise and Education users have for sharing information about how they use Adobe apps” below.

For mobile apps: Change your setting within the particular mobile app under “settings” or “preferences.” The collection setting in each app only applies to the collection done by that particular app, but not to the online services these apps may connect with (such as Behance, Adobe Fonts, Document Cloud or Creative Cloud) or the collection done by another Adobe app (you must adjust your setting within each mobile app).

For web apps: Change your setting by clicking the Cookies preferences link within the web app. You may have to repeat this process for each Adobe web-based app/service that collects usage data. For more information, see https://www.adobe.com/privacy/cookies.html.

Please note that if you opt-out, our apps will still collect diagnostic information for legal and safety purposes, but this information will only be used to detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security, potential deceptive or illegal activities, misuse of Adobe’s Services and Software or technical issues and software piracy, as described in the Adobe Privacy Policy. Additionally, these settings do not apply to prerelease or beta versions of Services or Software (which send usage information to Adobe as part of a prerelease or beta programme as described in our General Terms of Use).

The usage information collected as part of these services are governed by their respective privacy policies and the Adobe Privacy Policy. For more information about opting out of online usage tracking, please review the “Your Privacy Choices” section within the Adobe Privacy Centre.

What usage information is collected and sent to Adobe and how does Adobe use it?

When usage information is sent to Adobe, the following types of information about how you use and interact with Adobe apps will be sent on a continuous basis:

Browser and device information, such as device model and operating system, software and hardware information, browser and device settings, unique identifiers (such as IP address, cookie ID or deviceID), amount of memory install, language settings and screen resolution;
Adobe product information, such as version number;
Information about your content and documents, such as number of pages and unique document identifiers, (but not the content in your documents);
Content usage information such as how many times you access content and how you interact with your content within the app
How you interact with Adobe’s apps and how Adobe’s apps interact with your content, including the features you use and the options you select, your user journey to Adobe’s apps, the features you use and the options you select; and
Crash logs

You can find more information about how Adobe collects and uses information associated with you or your device in the Adobe Privacy Centre.

What options do Enterprise and Education users have for sharing information about how they use Adobe apps?

For desktop apps:

Creative Cloud

When managing application install via Creative Cloud Packager or with Enterprise IDs, the ability to send this information to Adobe is disabled for Creative Cloud for Enterprise and Creative Cloud for Education members and cannot be enabled. However, beta apps send usage information with Adobe.

However, if administrators allow users to install Creative Cloud applications via Creative Cloud desktop, while using an Adobe ID, then users have the option to send information about how they use the applications. Users can change their preference at any time by visiting their Account Management page.

Photoshop Elements/Adobe Premiere Elements

When managing application install through Adobe Volume Licensing, including for Education, the ability to send this information to Adobe is disabled and cannot be enabled.

For mobile and web apps: All users, regardless of their licence/entitlement type, can adjust their mobile and web app usage information collection settings as noted above in the “Can I choose not to send usage information to Adobe about how I access, use and interact with Adobe apps?" section.