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2o7.net is not spyware or malware. 2o7.net is a domain used by Web Analytics software maker Omniture. This will take some explaining.

Every website you go to logs what pages are being visited with your IP address, what browser you are using, what time, date and the exact page you are looking at. Every site. even the one you are currently looking at. it's a default function of a web server. sometimes this information is never looked at and only kept to find hack attempts, sometimes it is fed into a web analytics program like WebTrends or smaller ones like AnaLog or Webalizer. these programs give information in reports and graphs of how many hits pages get, visitors, page views, etc... these programs can extrapolate visitor patterns, gather locatiuon information on users based on ip address, etc... With these reports people can see how their web sites are being used, locate areas that users are having problems so they can streamline sections of the site, and basically improve the site. or at least give site owners insight to how their site is being used.

Most of these programs are complicated and a new industry grew of web analytics ASPs. instead of collecting that data in log files, that data would be collected by using javascript calls instead and sent to the ASPs. the ASPs would then analyze the same data. 2o7.net is a server used by one of these ASPs known as Omniture. The sites don;t just send their log files over because that would waste expensive internet bandwidth. instead only the vital info (server info is usually not important) is sent over with tracking cookies or 1x1 transparent gifs with URL parameters holding such info as your IP, what page you are on, the last page (on the site) you looked at, and a unique identifier so that it knows that while you look at the page in the afternoon it is a different visit than the time that you looked at it in the morning). No personal information like name, address, family size, income, email address, etc. is collected. Also, the tracking stops tracking you after you leave the site where the cookies or tracking images reside. other sites that use 2o7.net have their own unique identifier and your visits at site # 1 are not tied in any way to site #2.

It is a common misconception (especially with people concerned about spyware and adware) that these tracking cookies and images "monitor your web surfing habits". All they do is monitor web site use as a whole so companies can get a picture of how their own site is being used. They are not used for displaying or disseminating ads. They are not used for tracking you after you leave a site.

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