Google, Facebook Spy on Your Online Porn Viewing, Even Incognito

When you visit an online porn site—even if you’re using your browser’s “private” or “incognito” mode—there’s a nine out of 10 chance that your data is being leaked to one of the giant internet platforms, most likely Google. Facebook, Oracle and several other companies also place “trackers” on porn sites, according the new study that scanned 22,484 porn sites for the tracking software, according to a New York Times report published on Wednesday. The study, set to be published by New Media & Society but available online prior to publication, was carried out by researchers at Microsoft, Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania. “Although users may perceive a website or app as a single entity (often the address in their browsers), many sites and apps include code from other parties of which users are typically unaware,” the study's authors wrote. “Such ‘third-party’ code can allow companies to monitor the actions of users without their knowledge or consent and build detailed profiles of their habits and interests.” That appears to be exactly what is happening on porn sites. The researchers found that 93 percent of all of the porn sites in their extensive survey contained some kind of tracking code that gathered data on user behavior and shared it with another site or entity, according to a CNet report on the study.  Though Google itself refuses to host porn, and its Google AdWords program can penalize sites for containing even the mildest adult content, the internet data giant seems to have no qualms about collecting data on internet users’ porn habits and preferences. The study found that 74 percent of porn sites—basically three of every four—contained tracking code from Google, or a Google subsidiary, according to a Business Insider report on the alarming study. The global computer technology firm Oracle Corporation had its trackers on 24 percent of all porn sites in the study, while Facebook—which bans porn on its own platform—tracked user behavior on 10 percent of all porn sites. The researchers warn that visiting porn sites with a web browser set to “incognito” or “private window” mode did nothing whatsoever to prevent Google, Facebook, and others from collecting data on a user’s porn viewing. The “incognito” mode simply prevents site addresses from being stored in the browser history of an individual app. The big internet companies treat porn user data the same way they treat data gathered from online shopping and other activities, according to the study’s authors. “The fact that the mechanism for adult site tracking is so similar to, say, online retail should be a huge red flag,” said the site’s lead author, Microsoft’s Elena Maris. “This isn’t picking out a sweater and seeing it follow you across the web. This is so much more specific and deeply personal.”  Photo By Sebastian Bergmann / Wikimedia Commons