Technology companies systematically monitor our online activity. Information security experts have been mentioning it for years, but many people still seem to be ignoring it; recently, reports have increased that this surveillance occurs even when users enable private browsing mode to visit adult content sites.
The tracking
software used by companies such as Facebook
and Google is able to record even the most personal online activities, says the
research published by the New Media & Society magazine. For the realization
of this document were analyzed more than 20k pornographic material websites;
most worryingly, it’s not clear where all the data collected is going.
Elena Maris, an information security specialist
in charge of research, says the developers of these sites should have better
measures to protect the privacy of their users. “Maybe porn sites
developers haven’t thought about it, but the information they control is as
sensitive and confidential as a person’s clinical history,” she says.
The research revealed that about 93% of the porn
sites analyzed are collecting user data and send it to multiple third-party
sites. In general, developers of these adult sites rely on the use of webXray,
open source software to detect and match third-party data requests to scan
websites.
Information security specialists added that
less than 20% of these sites have encryption to safeguard the information they
manage; a possible explanation for this trend is that operators of these sites
do business with sensitive user data, ceding them to hacker groups or dark web
forums.
In addition, websites do not provide clear
information about companies that have access to the information collected, as
only 17% of these platforms have a privacy policy section available to
users.
According to specialists from the International
Institute of Cyber Security (IICS), almost all online follow-up activities are
performed by default and are governed by unclear policies or out of reach of
users.
The leakage of visitor data from pornographic
sites is a sensitive topic and all suppliers of this material, as well as
technology companies, must adapt their activity logging practices to privacy
standards to improve the experience of the User.
