Adobe restores service in Venezuela, ‘After discussions with the US government, we’ve been granted a license’

Customers in Venezuela can now access Adobe services, like Photoshop and Illustrator, again after the company obtained a license from the US government to continue operating in the country. The announcement comes after a tumultuous month in which the company first notified Venezuelan customers that their accounts would be deactivated in order to comply with a US executive order that prohibits trade with the country.

“After discussions with the US government, we’ve been granted a license to provide all of our Digital Media products and services in Venezuela. With this update, we’re sharing that users can continue to access the Creative Cloud and Document Cloud portfolio, and all of their content, as they did before,” the announcement reads.VENEZUELAN CUSTOMERS WILL GET 90 DAYS FREE

Adobe originally stated that free services like Behance would be inaccessible, and the order prohibited them from issuing refunds. The company updated its policies two days later to say that Venezuelans could continue to access Behance and that refunds would be issued by the end of the month. Adobe had listed October 28th as the last day for Venezuelans to back up the files on their Creative Cloud accounts, but according to the updated support document, those accounts will now be getting an additional 90 days of free service as an apology for the inconvenience. For users who already canceled their accounts and received refunds, Adobe says it will be contacting them in mid-November with information on renewing their subscriptions.

Today’s announcement comes right after last Friday’s report that 7.5 million Creative Cloud accounts have been breached, exposing customer data like email addresses, member IDs, and subscription information. Though no passwords or payment information was exposed, the breach still leaves customers susceptible to phishing attacks. Adobe says the exposed database has now been secured.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/28/20936214/adobe-venezuela-sanctions-us-executive-order