the researchers found that Google and its ecosystem was tracking almost 75% of the porn sites, Oracle almost 25% and Facebook a still eye-watering 10%.
You might want some privacy when consuming porn online, whether that’s going in incognito mode, locking the door, putting in headphones, or all of the above. And while this certainly conceals your activity from a roommate or someone who might look at your search history, researchers have demonstrated that your intimate browsing time is an open book to companies like Facebook and Google.
Researchers at Microsoft, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania analyzed 22,484 porn sites and found that 93% leak user data to a third party. Normally, for extra protection when surfing the web, a user might turn to incognito mode. But, the researchers said, incognito mode only ensures that your browsing history is not stored on your computer.
the researchers found that Google and its ecosystem was tracking almost 75% of the porn sites, Oracle almost 25% and Facebook a still eye-watering 10%.
Let's remember the sheer scale of traffic and usage here. Market-leader Pornhub claimed nearly 30 billion visits in 2017, with 50,000 searches per second. By some reckonings, porn-related traffic now accounts for almost one-third of all traffic, "more than Netflix, Amazon, and Twitter combined," and "YouPorn uses six times more bandwidth than Hulu."
Even if tracking companies themselves are not connecting users’ porn habits to personalized advertising, there’s a clear risk that such data could be hacked by outsiders. In recent years, a number of adult sites like YouPorn have been attacked, with hackers retrieving emails, passwords, usernames, and credit card details.
The study’s authors conclude that the “overwhelming leakiness” of porn sites’ data needs urgent attention. They suggest that government regulation could help enforce new privacy norms, and that users must be made aware of the information they are potentially revealing.
Researchers at Microsoft, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania analyzed 22,484 porn sites and found that 93% leak user data to a third party. Normally, for extra protection when surfing the web, a user might turn to incognito mode. But, the researchers said, incognito mode only ensures that your browsing history is not stored on your computer.
the researchers found that Google and its ecosystem was tracking almost 75% of the porn sites, Oracle almost 25% and Facebook a still eye-watering 10%.
Let's remember the sheer scale of traffic and usage here. Market-leader Pornhub claimed nearly 30 billion visits in 2017, with 50,000 searches per second. By some reckonings, porn-related traffic now accounts for almost one-third of all traffic, "more than Netflix, Amazon, and Twitter combined," and "YouPorn uses six times more bandwidth than Hulu."
Even if tracking companies themselves are not connecting users’ porn habits to personalized advertising, there’s a clear risk that such data could be hacked by outsiders. In recent years, a number of adult sites like YouPorn have been attacked, with hackers retrieving emails, passwords, usernames, and credit card details.
The study’s authors conclude that the “overwhelming leakiness” of porn sites’ data needs urgent attention. They suggest that government regulation could help enforce new privacy norms, and that users must be made aware of the information they are potentially revealing.