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If You Watch Porn, Facebook, Google, Oracle Are Tracking That

If You Watch Porn, Facebook, Google, Oracle Are Tracking That

Image by Marco Verch
Pornhub logo on a computer screen with a magnifying glass

If you watch porn online, someone might be tracking you. It seems Facebook, Google, and Oracle are secretly tracking the porn people view online, found a new joint study from Microsoft, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Researchers investigated 22,484 sex sites using webXray, which uncovers tracking tools that transmit data back to third parties. “Researchers discovered that Google and its various outlets had trackers on 74 percent of the web’s top online orgasm destinations, Oracle had 24 percent and Facebook 10 percent, study authors report,” The New York Post reported.

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“Our results indicate tracking is endemic on pornography websites: 93% of pages leak user data to a third-party,” the study revealed. “Revelations about such data represent specific threats to personal safety and autonomy in any society that polices gender and sexuality.”

And using “incognito” mode doesn’t hide your porn session from peeking eyes; the data is still sent to these third parties who may ultimately sell the data.

The study was co-authored by Elena Maris of Microsoft, Timothy Libert of Carnegie Mellon, and Jennifer Henrichsen of UPenn.

“The fact that the mechanism for adult site tracking is so similar to, say, online retail should be a huge red flag,” study co-author Maris told the New York Times.