One of the interesting things I’m noticing this month of recording every server my computer connects to is how intentionally vague many of the server names are. Today I saw the address 2O7.net (that’s a letter “O”, not a zero) and wondered what it was.
It turns out that 2O7.net is an address pinged by a tracking service, provided by a company called Omniture. This service is used in a variety of offline software products, such as the Adobe Creative Suite. The URL is further obscured by being made to look like an internal IP address (one that is internal to your computer and does not connect to the internet) – for example *.122.2O7.net.
This isn’t anything new: this Guardian article from 2008 asked Adobe why the secretive URL? “Why not call it ‘adobestats.omniture.com’? [John] Nack [head of Photoshop at Adobe] responded that ‘unfortunately, I don’t know the answer … I don’t want software sneaking around behind my back any more than the next guy.'”
It may come as no surprise that Adobe acquired Omniture just over a year later, and that they are still using the same URL.
Above: 2O7.net now redirects to adobe.com/privacy – not exactly clear, but at least hints at the source.