How Acrobat processes PDF documents and when Adobe cloud services are used

Hi all,

How are my PDF documents processed?

PDF files stored on your local computer remain on your device unless you choose to use an Adobe cloud service or another feature that uploads or shares your documents.

For example, documents are processed as part of Adobe cloud services when you:

• Save files to Adobe cloud storage
• Share PDFs for review
• Request electronic signatures
• Use Acrobat online services
• Use AI Assistant features

References

• https://www.adobe.com/trust.html
• https://www.adobe.com/privacy/policy.html

How does AI Assistant process PDF documents?

AI Assistant processes document content only when you choose to use its generative AI features, such as asking questions about a PDF or generating summaries.

In the desktop version of Acrobat and Acrobat Reader, the AI-generated overview that appears when you open a PDF is processed locally on your device, not on our servers.

Other AI Assistant interactions, such as asking a question about your document, are processed using our servers. That data is temporarily cached for up to 12 hours.

We do not use customer content to train the large language models that power Acrobat AI Assistant, unless you separately choose to submit content to the Adobe Stock marketplace.

You can turn off generative AI features entirely to prevent documents from being processed by them.

Reference: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/data-usage-and-handling.html

Does Adobe access the content of my documents?

Content processed or stored only on your local device is not analyzed by us for product improvement.

Content that is processed or stored on our servers, such as when you use cloud-based features, may be analyzed for product improvement. You can control this:

• Personal accounts can turn this off in account privacy settings.
• Business, team, and school accounts are automatically opted out.

In limited circumstances, we may conduct human review of content on our servers, such as:

• Content you make public, such as contributions to Adobe Stock and Behance, content you submit to be featured on Adobe Express, or content you submit as tutorials in Lightroom
• Content you submit as feedback
• Content processed to remove identifying details before review

We apply safeguards to this process, including confidentiality requirements for reviewers.

Reference: https://helpx.adobe.com/account/individual/terms-policies-and-regulations/content-analysis-faq.html

How can I choose where my documents are stored?

Acrobat supports both local and cloud-based workflows.

If you keep your PDFs on your local computer and don't use Acrobat online services, Adobe cloud storage, document sharing, or AI Assistant features, simply opening a PDF in Acrobat doesn't automatically upload it to our cloud services.

When you choose cloud-based features, Acrobat processes documents as needed to provide those services. We publish detailed documentation describing how documents are handled for each workflow.

References

• https://www.adobe.com/trust.html
• https://www.adobe.com/privacy/policy.html
• https://helpx.adobe.com/account/individual/terms-policies-and-regulations/content-analysis-faq.html

Thanks,

^BS