WeGoViral report:

What Google and Facebook are learning about porn viewers even if you use a private browser

If you are on erotic sites, you probably don't want others to find out about it. What many do not know, however, is that even in incognito mode, large tech companies follow everything very closely.

Sites like Xhamster and Pornhub are among the most visited internet domains in the world. With the incognito mode in the browser, many try to hide their identity. But in this context, it has no protective effect at all. For this reason, there is even a lawsuit against Google asking for about 5 billion dollars in damages. Precisely because the Chrome browser does not make people invisible, it's shockingly easy for advertisers to find out who people are and what videos they've watched. This is how blatantly you will be spied on when you visit erotic sites if you agree to the cookies.

How visitors of adult sites are spied on

Most erotic and Internet sites can create an individual digital fingerprint of the user. This process is called "fingerprinting" and allows advertising companies to compare a person's visits to different sites and thus create profiles for tailored advertising.

With this individual information and the IP address assigned to each Internet user, exact identification is possible. The surfing behavior and the titles of the videos watched can sooner or later become public - and potentially be associated with the name.

The pages keep track of which searches you have made or which films you have watched. They use tracking tools such as Google Analytics and the share buttons for Facebook, Twitter, or other third-party networks.

Hackers are also interested.

The magazine "Vice" did the test and read the transmission data. The erotic site "Xnxx" sends data to Google, to the Oracle subsidiary and analysis company "Addthis," and to an advertising network called "Pornvertising" - even if you surf in private mode. Such publication of erotic preferences by amateur hackers is a constantly growing danger because the data is spread across different platforms. Attackers could sell these or use them to blackmail users.

Advertisers benefit from precise information about their target group. So, for example, if surfing history is published, it may be embarrassing in the US for us, but in some countries, people with specific sexual preferences are oppressed and persecuted.

What can I do against the tracking?

Complete anonymity is impossible on the Internet. But you can cover your tracks as best you can: For example, via VPN services like "Hidester." This free service allows users to surf the web with IP addresses other than their own. To do this, you must anonymize the link to the page you want to visit in the search mask. Although this cannot completely protect against tracking, it at least makes it more challenging to create a digital footprint.

An anti-tracking browser such as "DuckDuckGo" is also recommended, which automatically prevents almost all tracking attempts.

Finally, of course, there is still the option of objecting to the advertising cookies on the site. Unfortunately, when asked for consent when visiting the site for the first time (or again after 30 days), this can only activate the necessary cookies. This will probably require clicking on many pages, but it is worth the effort.