Misleading marketing email from Adobe

[FlyingSquirrel]

For reasons of my own choosing, for the time being, I have decided to keep using my Adobe CS6, as opposed to the Creative Cloud (CC) subscription. I advise that you accept that it is my choice, and don't waste your time arguing about it

In any case, I have been paranoid about updating my CS6 package, for fear that something would go wrong and I'd be stuck having to go to the CC. Well, today I decided to go ahead and just update CS6, to get the latest Camera Raw support and other various benefits.

Shortly after clicking 'update', I received an email from Adobe with a subject of "Welcome to Creative Cloud. Let's get started." And then within the body, says "Welcome. We're glad you've joined us. Thanks for joining Creative Cloud. We thought we'd send along a few ideas to help you get started" ...and then a list of some bullet points...and then a large "Get Started" button.

When I saw this, I panicked, assuming that my update of CS6 had somehow upgraded me to CC against my will. Then I scrolled down in the email, and in fine print it says "This is a marketing email from Adobe Systems ..... Click here to unsubscribe." After restarting my PC, I am able to open my CS6 products still.

So, Adobe has resorted to misleading emails in an attempt to sucker people into joining Creative Cloud. Interesting.

[rpcrowe]

This statement is not an oxymoron but it may sound like one...

I love Photoshop but hate Adobe!

I will keep my CS6 (that I own) and I will update my Perfect Photo Suite and my NIK Software...

[FlyingSquirrel]

Ok, so the email was not generated from my CS6 update, it was because of an Adobe forum post I made earlier today. It's interesting though, because I have already been a forum member, and did not set anything new up today. Simply posting on the forum was enough to generate the marketing email. Apparently partaking in the forum means you have joined the Creative Cloud! Not as bad as I thought, but still a bit misleading and confusing.

[Adrian]

Adobe is in business to sell stuff. This only happens if you part with your payment details!

[pnodrog]

If you want to upgrade a non CC version of Lightroom you have to put up with a similar sort of nonsense. I end up having an angry interaction with an online sales person that popped up in a window asking if I needed help while I was trying to find the upgrade link on their web site. So brassed off I did not buy an upgrade and I will probably migrate to something else in the future.

[FlyingSquirrel]

If you want to upgrade a non CC version of Lightroom you have to put up with a similar sort of nonsense. I end up having an angry interaction with an online sales person that popped up in a window asking if I needed help while I was trying to find the upgrade link on their web site. So brassed off I did not buy an upgrade and I will probably migrate to something else in the future.

Yes. Adobe has been a pain lately. But I love their software too much. I will stick with cs6 as long as I can. I will soon upgrade my stand alone Lightroom to the newest version. I found the link for that today- it was very hidden and tucked away . I will find it again and link on here later (if I can remember to ) in case anyone needs help avoiding the cloud, lol. Will probably go to creative cloud in the future when I start a business and making money off my photos.

[IzzieK]

Cookies! I hope it is easy to get rid of them...but there are some that are needed...but which ones to get rid of is the problem..there are just too many of them. I like Photoshop too but I have NIK and Topaz as a sidedish to it...never really trust Cloud...

[ajohnw]

It may seem an odd thing for me to say given comments that other people make about why I run Linux but I don't really see any problem with people running CC. However it would pay to bear in mind the type of animal Adobe is. There is likely to be a certain amount of snooping to get usage information etc and probably is in earlier versions as well. There is no point in getting too paranoid about this as many companies do it. The ones that do something truly offensive are often related to free useful packages that are not open source. In fact I would say just do not use packages like this and if people do make use of open source make sure it comes from the official site.

In terms of paranoia people might find googling browser persistent storage interesting. The idea of this is that it's there for ever and gets round having cookies that identify people uniquely that link to a data base on their web usage. Fair enough as far as they are concerned as it saves them storage space and is there for ever. On the other hand I suspect it's open to far more miss use than cookies. I'd guess if I find out where it is kept and destroy it just like cookies some sites will prevent me from using them.

The whole PC area really has these problems so we just have to accept it. Sometimes some country may make noises about some of the things that go on but the www is world wide so all would have to get together and insist that certain things are against the law and prosecute offenders - this just can't be done in practice and often commercial interests win out anyway even when changes are of benefit to consumers - take the maximum electronic cash transfer cost option that paypal had to offer for a while - rather well hidden when it was there.

John
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[Loose Canon]

Why single out Adobe?

I get unsolicited marketing emails from Nik, Topaz, OnOne, Canon, Troy-Bilt (I recently bought a cultivator), Google, YouTube, the list goes on and on.

Guess I should post something every time I get one. No need to act like Adobe has the market cornered on this.

It would sure keep me busy posting complaints about unwanted emails.

[ajohnw]

That was exactly the point I was trying to make Terry.

On your emails do you use filtering? All my mail from people I actually know goes into a folder. Ebay, paypal into others. The rest goes into another. I also often use the unsubscribe option on spam off companies I have dealt with but never on the dubious ones.. Sorted like this it takes seconds to delete them.

Some people play with the content of the name field in their email address - It's even possible to sort this and delete them immediately. Not one i have used but it's another option. For instance I might set my name to john I'mGoingToDeleteThis or what ever surname I choose.

John
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[Mike Buckley]

Matt's point isn't that Adobe sent him an unsolicited marketing piece. His point is that the piece was delivered to him using a time and method that were both confusing and misleading. Such thinking isn't paranoia; it's recognizing a deceitful business practice.

Why mention Adobe? Considering that this a photography forum, why not?

Speaking of photography, this year I have been able to print photos and photo books and have prints framed at some very heavily discounted prices thanks to learning about special offerings from unsolicited emails that were neither confusing nor misleading.

I get unsolicited marketing emails from Nik, Topaz, OnOne, Canon, Troy-Bilt (I recently bought a cultivator), Google, YouTube, the list goes on and on.

What about the company that sold you the big red bucket?

[Loose Canon]

Matt's point isn't that Adobe sent him an unsolicited marketing piece. His point is that the piece was delivered to him using a time and method that were both confusing and misleading. Such thinking isn't paranoia; it's recognizing a deceitful business practice.

Why mention Adobe? Considering that this a photography forum, why not?

Speaking of photography, this year I have been able to print photos and photo books and have prints framed at some very heavily discounted prices thanks to learning about special offerings from unsolicited emails that were neither confusing nor misleading.

What about the company that sold you the big red bucket?

Mike if you are addressing me rather than Matt, who actually made the post (sounds like you may be)…

While I can appreciate that you are Matt’s new spokesmodel and he has apparently engaged you to clarify his statements for him I’m pretty sure I get the point just fine.

I never said anything about why mention Adobe, I said why single them out. I mentioned not one, but four photography-related vendors (and some that are not photography related) that do the exact same thing. The timing, by Matt’s own admission, was coincidental.

In fact I have to agree with you Mike. It is obvious that they are all engaging in horrifyingly deceitful, confusing, and misleading business practices with Evil Adobe leading the way. It is further obvious that they are each engaged in a dubious and sinister plan to take over the world and then commit photo-genocide on those who refuse to be assimilated. Once they do they will turn on each other like a pack of rabid dogs.

It is up to us to foil this dastardly plot against the World by taking such drastic measures as oh, say, unsubscribing or even (shudder) doing business with someone else. Assuming that we do so while there is still time and we still have a choice in the matter (oh wait, there is and we do).

Further, I said the emails I receive are unsolicited. I didn’t say they were necessarily unwanted.

And Mike? In the event you are not addressing me then the company that custom made (there is only the one) the BRT continues to send me emails until I opt for one of the solutions mentioned above.

You still on the ExOfficio WhiteyTighty Quick Drying Skivvies mailing list? And quit giving them my name because now I’m starting to get unsolicited (and in this case unwanted) emails from them!

[DanK]

Wow. That last post was uncalled for.

Mike's comment seemed clearly to refer to Matt's original posting, and I agree with him and Matt. I didn't sign up for CC for some time, and exactly the same thing happened to me. It is NOT the same as sending advertising e-mails. The message from Adobe makes it look like you have actually signed up, when you haven't. I too was concerned and ended up wasting time sorting this out. it is not an appropriate way to market.

[Loose Canon]

Wow. That last post was uncalled for.

Mike's comment seemed clearly to refer to Matt's original posting, and I agree with him and Matt. I didn't sign up for CC for some time, and exactly the same thing happened to me. It is NOT the same as sending advertising e-mails. The message from Adobe makes it look like you have actually signed up, when you haven't. I too was concerned and ended up wasting time sorting this out. it is not an appropriate way to market.

Well Dan I'm glad it seems clear to someone. I really can't see Mike posting what he did if I hadn't posted what I did. But wouldn't be the first time I was wrong.

When Adobe was first marketing CC and before it launched I got a number of emails starting out with "Welcome to the Creative Cloud". Same as I might send out a promo saying "Welcome to Loose Canon Auto Repair". In fact I still get stuff from them saying welcome to CC.

The only difference is I don't think Adobe is out to get me and has automatically signed me up to CC without my permission (and credit card number). And I'm pretty sure they are not going to take away my existing Adobe products if I don't sign up for CC.

They want my business same as Topaz, Nik, OnOne, and the rest. I wouldn't even give it a second thought if I got an introductory email headered "Welcome to Nik Software".

[Mike Buckley]

Mike if you are addressing me rather than Matt

I was addressing all viewers of the thread, nobody in particular.

You still on the ExOfficio WhiteyTighty Quick Drying Skivvies mailing list? And quit giving them my name because now I’m starting to get unsolicited (and in this case unwanted) emails from them!

Blame my wife for that. She ordered them. I haven't received any of their emails. Perhaps they sent them instead to you knowing their product would look better on you.

[Mike Buckley]

For the record, I have no objection whatsoever to Terry's post. Moreover, I don't ever remember having any objection to any of his posts.

I really can't see Mike posting what he did if I hadn't posted what I did.

Everything that I posted was in response to all of the posts in the thread, which of course included your post.

[xpatUSA]

On a more general note and speaking as a grumpy old man, this whole business of targeted ads and sneaky tricks irritates the hell out me. Seriously.

Over on DPR they've started doing pop-ups at odd moments. Like when you click to upload your finely-crafted post. In teeny-weeny text at top right is the link to bypass the ad and complete your bidness as opposed to rushing off and buying a Nikon D750.

Not to mention when I bought a very expensive standby generator for out here in the country and suffered generator ads on every page I visited for a good long time. Like, I'm going to immediately buy another one? Right now it's silver coins. having bought some recently, grrrr . . .

Rant over. Sorry.

[ajohnw]

Shhhhh don't tell anybody Ted but Opera has a partial fix for this. Right click on a tab and choose open new private tab. When one of those is closed it deletes anything that has been stored locally. This should help. The nice thing is it meets a sites requirements cookie etc wise and then gets rid of the lot.

There are several variations of this on other browsers however I suspect IE and Chrome won't do it. Probably Safari too.

I should add that this will get round the problem of info collected when deciding what to buy but not when actually buying. Haven't tried logging in on ebay etc in one but no reason why it shouldn't still work.

Like other browsers it also has a request not to be tracked option - if they obey it.

John
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[DanK]

On a more general note and speaking as a grumpy old man, this whole business of targeted ads and sneaky tricks irritates the hell out me. Seriously.

Over on DPR they've started doing pop-ups at odd moments. Like when you click to upload your finely-crafted post. In teeny-weeny text at top right is the link to bypass the ad and complete your bidness as opposed to rushing off and buying a Nikon D750.

Not to mention when I bought a very expensive standby generator for out here in the country and suffered generator ads on every page I visited for a good long time. Like, I'm going to immediately buy another one? Right now it's silver coins. having bought some recently, grrrr . . .

Rant over. Sorry.

Ted,

Use Firefox, and install the Adblock Plus add-on. You will still be tracked, but at least most of the adds (not just popups) disappear.

If you want a relatively low-level protection against having your searches monitored, use DuckDuckGo (https://duckduckgo.com/) instead of Google or Bing.

Dan

[proseak]

There is quite a lot you can do about this.

1) Modify the hosts file; this will prevent a great deal of stuff from reaching your machine at all. Here's the one I use;

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

2) Get AdblockPlus, for each of your browsers.

3) For Firefox, get NoScript. This blocks Javasript, flash etc until you permit it. Fiddly to use, but makes a browser much more secure.

4) Make sure that you have all your login details for everything, and get Ccleaner

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner

Use it's default settings, and when it asks about the intelligent scan for cookies, click "yes". Run daily.
HTH

Peter