According to U.S. research, 93% of porn sites collect data about our preferences and give it to third-party companies. Among these also Google and FB
That on the web there are tools that track user behavior, so as to derive commercially useful data is a well-known fact. Even if the European Union has tried to put a brake on it with the cookie law first and the GDPR later, this allows companies to create a unique profile of us, thanks to which they propose advertising and products in line with our interests.
But some web pages are more monitored than others. In particular, porn sites receive great attention from web giants and are constantly tracked by web trackers. Attentions always denied by both Facebook and Google, who have always stated that they do not use the information collected about visitors to adult sites to create marketing profiles. But the exact opposite is true.
The study: porn sites and web trackers
According to a study carried out jointly by researchers at Microsoft, Carnagie Mellon and the University of Pennsylvania, porn sites are constantly monitored by web trackers. Using a tool called webXray, the U.S. scholars scanned 22,484 sites and discovered that 93% of the pages collect data and give it to third-party companies. The study conducted in March 2018 found that both Facebook and Google are among these companies that exploit porn site trackers. In particular, Big G collects data from 74% of the analyzed sites, a percentage that equates to about 16,638 websites, while Facebook stops at 10% with "only" 2,248 sites.
Incognito surfing
Scholars warn: incognito surfing does not serve to protect us from tracking. This is because, even if the navigation of the user using this option is not recorded in the browser history, the data is still assimilated and then transferred to third parties. What's more, the research points out that users who browse porn sites are constantly under threat of a possible hacking attack as only 17% of them use encryption to protect their and their users' data.