This is most definitely a consequence of Apple tightening privacy requirements for things like the camera and microphone, in macOS 10.15 and later. Apple did this for good reasons, but Apple has been criticized by many developers and users for making the alert message so vague that users think they are being spied on, when applications are simply just trying to do what they have always done, like sample the screen for a color picker.
I wrote an explanation with examples in another post on this forum.
This is something you have to get used to as a Mac user even if you do not use Adobe software, because it’s an Apple alert. In addition to the examples in the link above, Google returns plenty of other examples where many Mac developers have had to explain to users the legitimate reasons why their applications display a permissions request for the camera (or microphone) in macOS 10.15 and later:
DisplayLink
Bartender (popular menu bar manager utility)
TechSmith
Duet
Framer
@mclynn wrote:
I was messing around with the new masking tools and after I'd undone a few things, the message popped up. I wish I had done a screenshot, but I was upset about it and just clicked Deny.
That’s exactly the kind of confusion that Apple’s vague alert wording has caused.
In the new masking features, when setting a color or luminance range mask, clicking or dragging an eyedropper is one way to set the range. Eyedropper tools sample the screen, and sampling is frequently interpreted by macOS 10.15 and later as a “screen recording” activity, so that might have set off the alert.
Be aware that by denying permission, the feature you were trying to use at the time may not work properly in the future. If that happens, you may have to reset the Camera permissions for the application in the macOS Security and Privacy panel in System Preferences.
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