Seems that I set the internet ablaze when I raised the issue that Adobe applications that called home. During the firestorm, I was able to talk to MANY individuals in Adobe - specifically John Nack - who stood on the firing line fiercely defending the company that employs him.

He writes:

The welcome screen (screenshot) that’s available in some Adobe CS3 applications (Flash, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and InDesign) is designed to show fresh, relevant news and information. For that reason it loads a Flash SWF file that’s hosted on Adobe.com, just as a Web browser would do. When the SWF gets loaded, it pings the Omniture server to record the event. As noted previously, no personal information is uploaded in that exchange. [...]

Q.: Why does Adobe use a server whose name is so suspicious-looking?
A.: I’m afraid the answer is that we don’t really know. The fact is that this SWF tracking code already existed on the Macromedia side at the time the companies merged, and it was adopted without change by a number of products for CS3. The people who wrote the code originally did not document why they used that server name, and we can’t find anyone who remembers. I’m sorry we aren’t able to provide a more solid, definitive explanation.

Q.: Follow-on: Given that you can’t give a good reason why Adobe is using a server whose name is so suspicious, are you going to change the name?
A.: Absolutely. We are working with Omniture on this right now, and will make this change as soon as we can. (I don’t know how long this will take, but will post here when I do.)

Longer-term (in future releases), we’ll do a better job of explaining what the apps are doing of the network and why. I think we can enable some really amazing user experiences by bringing the desktop & online worlds closer together, and that most people will want to participate in those. The key thing is that they be given the choice, and that they be made aware of what’s going on.

Kudos, John. You did a VERY good job at explaining why Adobe apps connect to the Internet. From this lesson Adobe will hopefully learn to carefully scrutinize WHO they do business with and to give users CHOICE regarding how their applications interact with the internet. They will now hopefully better disclose better what is ticking in their super secret source code.

After getting to know John I can say that he is profoundly concerned about this issue and will be working hard to achieve all the goals he promised - he has the power to do it.

ALL programmers take note, we are watching! You are on notice! All we ask is that you clearly disclose WHAT information you collect and what you do with it.

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