The Implications of Widespread Sexual Data Leakage and Tracking on Porn Websites (Preprint, July 2019)
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Tracking sex: The implications of widespread sexual data leakage and tracking on porn websites (Preprint, July 2019) Elena Maris Timothy Libert Jennifer Henrichsen Microso Research Carnegie Mellon University University of Pennsylvania [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT His assumption that porn websites will protect is paper explores tracking and privacy risks on pornography his information, along with the reassurance of the websites. Our analysis of 22,484 pornography websites indicated ‘incognito’ mode icon on his screen, provide Jack that 93% leak user data to a third party. Tracking on these sites a fundamentally misleading sense of privacy as he is highly concentrated by a handful of major companies, which consumes porn online. we identify. We successfully extracted privacy policies for 3,856 e above hypothetical scenario occurs frequently in reality and sites, 17% of the total. e policies were wrien such that one is indicative of the widespread data leakage and tracking that can might need a two-year college education to understand them. Our occur on porn sites. In 2017, Pornhub, one of the largest porn content analysis of the sample’s domains indicated 44.97% of them websites3, received 28.5 billion visits, with users performing 50,000 expose or suggest a specic gender/sexual identity or interest likely searches per second on the site (Pornhub, 2018). Statistics vary to be linked to the user. We identify three core implications of as to the amount of overall porn activity on the internet, but a the quantitative results: 1) the unique/elevated risks of porn data 2017 report indicated porn sites get more visitors each month than leakage versus other types of data, 2) the particular risks/impact Netix, Amazon, and Twier combined, and that ‘30% of all the data for vulnerable populations, and 3) the complications of providing transferred across the internet is porn,’ with site YouPorn using six consent for porn site users and the need for armative consent in times more bandwidth than Hulu (Kleinman, 2017). While there is these online sexual interactions. much scholarly aention on internet use and privacy in general, there has been less research on the specic privacy implications CCS CONCEPTS of online porn use. Considering that porn websites are among the •Security and privacy ! Social aspects of security and pri- most visited on the Internet (Alexa, 2018b), it is imperative to aend vacy; •Social and professional topics ! Privacy policies; Cor- to the specic privacy concerns of online porn consumption. Most porate surveillance; crucially, porn consumption data is sexual data, and thus constitutes an especially sensitive type of online data users likely wish to keep KEYWORDS private. privacy, web tracking, pornography, consent, regulation Revelations about such data represent specic threats to personal safety and autonomy in any society that polices gender and sexu- ality. In this article, we demonstrate through the study of 22,484 1 INTRODUCTION pornography websites that people who visit such sites may have One evening, ‘Jack’ decides to view porn on his their sexual interests inferred by third-parties that surreptitiously laptop. He enables ‘incognito’ mode in his browser, track web browsing, oen without user notice or consent. We assuming his actions are now private1. He pulls provide quantitative results that reveal extensive privacy issues up a site and scrolls past a small link to a privacy on pornography websites and highlight three core implications of policy. Assuming a site with a privacy policy will our ndings: 1) the unique and elevated risks of porn data leakage protect his personal information2, Jack clicks on versus other types of data, 2) the targeting of ‘dierence’ and the a video. What Jack does not know is that incog- likelihood that the tracking of sexual data will especially impact arXiv:1907.06520v1 [cs.CY] 15 Jul 2019 nito mode only ensures his browsing history is vulnerable populations, and 3) the complications of giving consent not stored on his computer. e sites he visits, as to data collection and tracking for porn site users, and how these well as any third-party trackers, may observe and problematic understandings of consent mirror more general mis- record his online actions. ese third-parties may conceptions and power imbalances of interpersonal sexual consent. even infer Jack’s sexual interests from the URLs of the sites he accesses. ey might also use what 2 RELATED WORK they have decided about these interests for market- 2.1 Porn Uses, Identity, and ‘Sexual Interests’ ing or building a consumer prole. ey may even sell the data. Jack has no idea these third-party Pornography and sexually explicit material related to sex, sexual data transfers are occurring as he browses videos. orientation, gender performance, and sexual interests have long served as sources of information, identity formation, support, and 1Private browsing is used more oen when viewing ‘adult’ content; however, users ‘overestimate the protection from online tracking and targeted advertising,’ which is scant (Habib et al., 2018: 159). 3Pornhub is easily one of the largest porn sites in terms of content; in its rst 10 years, 2See Turow et al. (2015a). more than 10 million videos were uploaded on the site (Pornhub, 2017). community. is has particularly been true for those whose sex- interest, desire, or anity5. Further, the site URLs oen suggest ual interests are deemed deviant or abnormal, and thus must be specic genders and/or sexual preferences, genres, and acts found explored privately. Gross (2001: 221) explains, ‘..sexual images and in the site content. However, we believe if individuals’ porn use is stories have generally been ocially condemned while privately en- involuntarily exposed, such nuanced, sex-positive understandings joyed. ey also have oered channels for the vicarious expression of porn and sexual interest will likely not gure into many outside and satisfaction of minority interests that are dicult, embarrassing, readings of user activities. us, we center the ability to privately and occasionally illegal to indulge in reality...’ Porn can provide consume online porn as a right to sexual privacy, which Citron community for those in areas hostile toward their identity (Gross, (2019: 1898, 1901) notes, “is concerned with sexual autonomy,self- 2001). Despite online porn’s aordances for community, it remains determination, and dignity...” and “...the extent to which others tied up in extant issues around power, agency and representation have access to and information about people’s ... sexual desires, in traditional porn industries (Mowlabocus, 2010). fantasies, and thoughts...” We center private access to online porn as important to a queer, feminist, sex-positive politics of gender and sexuality, and central 2.2 Online Tracking and Privacy to community-building and free and safe sexual expression: Although users may perceive a website or app as a single entity e existence of these sexual images is a threat (oen the address in their browsers), many sites and apps include to those who guard the ramparts of the sexual code from other parties of which users are typically unaware (Lib- reservation. Visible lesbian or gay (or any uncon- ert, 2015). Such “third-party” code can allow companies to monitor ventional) sexuality undermines the unquestioned the actions of users without their knowledge or consent and build normalcy of the status quo and opens up the pos- detailed proles of their habits and interests. Such proles are oen sibility of making choices that people might never used for targeted advertising, for example, by showing ads for dog have otherwise considered. (Gross, 2001: 223) food to dog owners (Turow, 2012). Many websites and apps have When sex acts and identities are labeled abnormal or normal,all revenue sharing agreements with third-party advertising networks are vulnerable. Sloop (2004: 8) notes ‘sex positive’ means, “to think and gain direct monetary benet from including third-party code of sexual practices and sexuality as being organized into systems (Turow, 2012). However, tracking users on websites without ad- of power that must be transgressed if we are to undermine the vertisements can provide additional insights into their habits, and constraining dimensions of culture on our behavior,” and, accord- online advertising companies like Facebook and Google oer web ing to Smith and Awood (2014: 13) is “...oen associated with developers a range of “free” non-advertising services subsidized by opposition to the regulation of sexual practices, the censorship of allowing these companies to track users (Libert, 2015). For example, sexual representations and restrictions on sex education.” Herein, a developer may include the Facebook “Like” buon on a website we take such a ‘sex positive’ view of porn and access to online to facilitate sharing content, which allows Facebook to track the pornography. While acknowledging the many racist, misogynistic, activities of all visitors - Facebook users or not. Decades of research heteronormative and other problematic histories and themes in have demonstrated a variety of types of third-party tracking are pornography and its production, distribution and consumption4, endemic on both web and mobile devices (Felten and Schneider, our work recognizes the ubiquity and permanence of porn and its 2000; Krishnamurthy and Wills, 2006; Libert, 2015; Englehardt and many uses and social functions, and the danger of societal, state, Narayanan, 2016; Binns et al., 2018). and institutional narratives that might work to discipline gender e impacts of this tracking extend far beyond selling dog food. and sex. A signicant body of literature has addressed the social implica- Researchers are learning the many uses of porn, complicating tions of online consumer surveillance, including users’ aitudes simplistic notions of what porn is ‘for.’ Porn consumption does about being tracked (Barth and de Jong, 2017; Custers et al., 2014), not necessarily equate to sexual identity, preference, pleasure, in- the mechanisms behind data mining and tracking (Kennedy, 2016), terest, or fetish.