Understanding Calls to the Demdex Domain

Call Element

Description

This is a legacy domain controlled by Adobe. It reflects the original, pre-acquisition name of Audience Manager (Demdex). Adobe acquired Demdex in 2011 and re-branded the company as Audience Manager. It is difficult to change this domain because it is entwined deeply with Audience Manager, the Adobe Experience Cloud ID Service, and our installed user base. You may see other prefixes attached to legacy demdex.net calls (e.g., dcs.demdex.net, fast.demdex.net, etc.). Regardless of the prefix, a call to something.demdex.net is always a call to Adobe and not to some unknown or suspicious third-party domain.

DPM is an abbreviation for Data Provider Match. It tells internal, Adobe systems that a call from Audience Manager or the Adobe Experience Cloud ID Service is passing in customer data for synchronization or requesting an ID. This is the most common demdex.net call you’ll see from Audience Manager or the Adobe Experience Cloud ID Service.

DPM call basics:

• Audience Manager: A DPM call from Audience Manager sends data to the Data Collection Servers and Profile Cache Servers. See Data Collection Components.
• Adobe Experience Cloud ID Service: A DPM call from the Adobe Experience Cloud ID Service is a request for a visitor ID. See Cookies and the Adobe Experience Platform Identity Service and How the Adobe Experience Platform Identity Service Requests and Sets IDs.

Note: Adobe Experience Cloud ID Service customers can change the DPM prefix in the domain name. See audienceManager Server and audienceManagerServerSecure.