Adobe Systems is delivering via the Adobe Document Center a new hosted service designed to enable the protection, sharing and usage tracking of Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel documents. "With Adobe Document Center, we're putting the control and protection of sensitive information within the reach of individuals in businesses of all sizes," said Tom Hale, senior vice president, Knowledge Worker Business Unit at Adobe.

Adobe's initiative is available through a free trial agreement by the end of 2006 and involves protecting an unlimited number of documents. Concomitantly with the commercial release of Adobe Document Center at the beginning of 2007, Adobe will also introduce a subscription price of US$19.99/month, or US$199/year per user for the protection of five documents. Additional pricing will be announced at a later date.

"Business collaboration relies on exchanging important information between companies. Individuals in small and mid-sized organizations, however, often have difficulty controlling information once it's been distributed. Other security solutions only offer control for the first time a file is accessed by recipients, leaving critical documents such as proposals and legal agreements vulnerable to being shared further without the knowledge of the author," added Hale.

Adobe Document Center users will be able not only to protect their documents but also to dynamically grant and revoke access rights, set expiration dates and audit the actions performed on the documents.