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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFacebook and Google Trackers Are Showing Up on Porn Sites
Source: New York Times
Facebook and Google Trackers Are Showing Up on Porn Sites
A new study scanned 22,484 pornography sites and found them riddled with trackers from major technology companies.
By Charlie Warzel
Mr. Warzel is an Opinion writer at large
July 17, 2019
Silicon Valleys biggest companies are always watching you even when youre browsing pornography websites in incognito mode.
Trackers from tech companies like Google and Facebook are logging your most personal browsing details, according to a forthcoming New Media & Society paper, which scanned 22,484 pornography websites. Where that data ultimately goes is not always clear.
These porn sites need to think more about the data that they hold and how its just as sensitive as something like health information, said Elena Maris, a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft and the studys lead author. Protecting this data is crucial to the safety of its visitors. And what weve seen suggests that these websites and platforms might not have thought all of this through like they should have.
The studys other authors Jennifer Henrichsen, doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, and Tim Libert, a Carnegie Mellon computer science instructor found that 93 percent of the pornography websites they scanned sent data to an average of seven third-party domains. The authors used webXray, an open-source software tool, which detects and matches third-party data requests to scan sites. Most of that information (79 percent of websites that transmitted user data) was sent via tracking cookies from outside companies.
-snip-
A new study scanned 22,484 pornography sites and found them riddled with trackers from major technology companies.
By Charlie Warzel
Mr. Warzel is an Opinion writer at large
July 17, 2019
Silicon Valleys biggest companies are always watching you even when youre browsing pornography websites in incognito mode.
Trackers from tech companies like Google and Facebook are logging your most personal browsing details, according to a forthcoming New Media & Society paper, which scanned 22,484 pornography websites. Where that data ultimately goes is not always clear.
These porn sites need to think more about the data that they hold and how its just as sensitive as something like health information, said Elena Maris, a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft and the studys lead author. Protecting this data is crucial to the safety of its visitors. And what weve seen suggests that these websites and platforms might not have thought all of this through like they should have.
The studys other authors Jennifer Henrichsen, doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, and Tim Libert, a Carnegie Mellon computer science instructor found that 93 percent of the pornography websites they scanned sent data to an average of seven third-party domains. The authors used webXray, an open-source software tool, which detects and matches third-party data requests to scan sites. Most of that information (79 percent of websites that transmitted user data) was sent via tracking cookies from outside companies.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/17/opinion/google-facebook-sex-websites.html
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Facebook and Google Trackers Are Showing Up on Porn Sites (Original Post)
Eugene
Jul 2019
OP
"scanned 22,484 pornography sites" - Yeah! That sounds about right for a weekend.
keithbvadu2
Jul 2019
#2
ADX
(1,622 posts)1. Anyone who is not using VPNs, the TAILS operating system, and/or the TOR browser...
...when on the internet is putting their privacy and security at risk.
Forewarned is forearmed...
keithbvadu2
(36,937 posts)2. "scanned 22,484 pornography sites" - Yeah! That sounds about right for a weekend.
"scanned 22,484 pornography sites" -
Yeah! That sounds about right for a weekend.
hunter
(38,328 posts)3. And they were garbage, all of them.
I remember when cable television had ten channels.
Then it was 57 channels and nothin' on.
Now what have we got?
keithbvadu2
(36,937 posts)4. A zillion home shopping channels