Adobe faces fresh lawsuit over alleged secret data tracking and sale to advertisers

Adobe is once again being pulled into legal troubles over accusations that it secretly tracks the online activities of consumers and sells this data to advertisers without user consent. A class action lawsuit, filed in California federal court by plaintiff Nicholas Rapak, alleges that Adobe’s practices constitute a significant breach of privacy.

The lawsuit, highlighted by Top Class Actions, claims that Adobe utilizes its Experience Cloud Identity Service, among other products, to monitor what users do online. This service allegedly assigns a unique identifier to each website visitor. This identifier allows Adobe to follow individuals across various websites and devices, building detailed profiles of their habits, interests, and online behaviors.

According to the complaint, these comprehensive profiles are then monetized by selling access to them to advertisers looking to target specific consumer groups. Rapak’s filing asserts that Adobe’s role as a “centralized identity broker” enables it to create these exhaustive individual profiles, undermining mechanisms designed to protect user privacy online.

The lawsuit seeks to represent a nationwide class of consumers who believe their online communications were intercepted or used by Adobe without their permission. This includes individuals for whom Adobe allegedly stored an Experience Cloud ID, a “demdex” cookie (a type of tracking cookie), or other identifying information, or for whom Adobe created an “Identity Graph,” a map of a user’s interconnected digital activities.

So, what does Adobe supposedly do with all this information? The lawsuit claims it’s sold to advertisers. These advertisers then use your personal profile to show you very specific ads, a practice often called targeted advertising. Adobe even sells a product called “Adobe Target,” which, according to the complaint, helps businesses create “personalized interactions” with people based on their unique online behavior. The lawsuit stresses that people had no idea Adobe was allegedly using these sneaky tags to watch them and then using their private online activities to help companies target them with ads.

The legal papers accuse Adobe of breaking two California laws: the Invasion of Privacy Act and the Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act. Basically, these laws are there to protect people’s private conversations and information from being secretly accessed or used. Rapak is asking for a trial by jury. He wants the court to officially declare Adobe’s actions wrong, order them to stop these practices, and pay compensation to everyone affected.

This isn’t the first time Adobe has run into legal trouble. Just last year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Adobe. That lawsuit was about Adobe not being clear enough about expensive fees people had to pay if they cancelled certain subscriptions early. In fact, we also highlighted how users could bypass the ridiculous cancellation fees. 

Lawyers from two firms, Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe LLP and Lowey Dannenberg P.C., are representing Rapak. The case, titled Rapak v. Adobe Inc., has been filed in a federal court in Northern California. For now, we’ll have to wait and see how things play out.

Meanwhile, feel free to share your thoughts on the lawsuit in the comments below.