DUBAI: A new study by researchers from Microsoft, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Pennsylvania has shown that porn sites are being tracked by Facebook, Google and Oracle, according to a report The New York Times.
The report said some 22,485 pronography sites were analyzed using webXray to check tracking tools sending data to third parties.
“Our results indicate tracking is endemic on pornography websites: 93% of pages leak user data to a third-party,” NYT quoted the researchers as saying in their conclusion.
Worse, the study found that porn sites are being tracked even when the user is on “incognito” mode because such “only ensures the browsing history is not stored on his computer.”
“The sites he visits, as well as any third-party trackers, may observe and record his online actions,” the researchers said.
What’s even more concerning, said Elena Maris, one of the researchers, is that if this can be done on porn site usage, it can likewise be used on on-line retail, which according to her, has similar tracking.
“That should be a huge red flag,” NYT quoted her as saying.
Of the sites scanned in March 2018, NYT said the study found Google or its subsidiaries had trackers on 74%, Oracle on 24%, and Facebook on 10%. That translates to roughly 16,638 sites with Google trackers, 5,396 with Oracle, and 2,248 for Facebook, NYT said.
Porn sites are blocked in the UAE and other Arab countries.
Pornhub said Filipinos ranked number one among those who spent the longest time watching porn in 2018, with a fairly close number of male and female viewers.
