PSA: Pornhub Collects A Worrying Amount Of User Data

PSA: Pornhub Collects A Worrying Amount Of User Data

In the modern internet era, it’s safe to assume that there’s at least one company watching everything you do on the internet at all times, poised to profit from that data. Yes, that includes adult sites – in fact they’re among the worst offenders.

A recent report from Quartz profiled PornHub and its parent company, data analysis firm MindGeek.

[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2018/02/the-biggest-and-weirdest-online-porn-trends-in-2017-according-to-pornhub/” thumb=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2018/01/iStock-157481167-410×231.jpg” title=”This Year’s Biggest (And Weirdest) Online Porn Trends” excerpt=”Pornhub’s ‘Year In Review’ is an absolute gold mine of data and statistics about what human beings search for when it comes to porn (and how they do it)! With around 81 million visitors every day of the year, Pornhub’s database offers the most complete view of exactly what (or who) got people off to in 2017.”]

Though nothing on MindGeek‘s website references adult entertainment “its site looks like a template for a corporate website ” the company owns a number of massively successful porn streaming sites and production houses. MindGeek‘s success, per the report, stems in part from the fact that it collects data about everyone’s porn-watching habits and uses it to make more appealing porn.

What kind of data do PornHub and its sister sites collect? According to its privacy policy, PornHub records every user’s IP address and cookies, including their location, the time of their visit, and what kind of hardware/software they’re using to view the site. PornHub (or any porn site) matches the data from its sites up with what the user does on the site ” the videos they click, the videos they watch, how long they watch, etc. It also, of course, keeps a close eye on what people search for.

On top of that, users can give porn sites a ton of feedback. To create a free account, PornHub users must provide their name, date of birth, and gender. With that account they can (and often do) comment, download videos to view offline, and curate a list of their favourite videos, among other things. Just like social networks, every action you take on a porn site is a data point to be recorded.

MindGeek gets more out of that data by changing small aspects of videos or their metadata to what draws more people in ” this practice, called A/B testing, goes on all the time all over the internet. As you’ll see in the Quartz piece, the results of this testing led to scripts that call for very specific details based on user preferences.

It is, strangely, not that different from how Netflix uses your data to make its shows.

Compared to other data collecting businesses like Google, Microsoft and Facebook, MindGeek claims to be relatively respectful of its users’ privacy. MindGeek told Quartz that, while it uses user data to make porn and help match videos with people, it does not sell that data to third-parties.

I’m not sure that will make anyone more comfortable or happy about the situation, especially since PornHub frequently publishes reports that examine, very broadly, how people use it. (Its 2018 year in review came out this week).

Of course, your web browser may be tracking your online activity as well, so there’s a good chance MindGeek isn’t the only one who knows about what you’re watching. (You think that private browsing window keeps you safe? Let’s clarify, then. It does not).

[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2019/07/the-deepfake-phenomena-is-spreading-heres-why/” thumb=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/07/DeepFake-410×231.jpg” title=”‘Deepfakes’ Have Spread Beyond Porn (And Everyone Should Be Worried)” excerpt=”The recent viral “deepfake” video of Mark Zuckerberg declaring, “whoever controls the data controls the world” was not a particularly convincing imitation of the Facebook CEO. But it was spectacularly successful at focusing attention on the threat of digital media manipulation.”]

Though it feels like it should be more private, there are no special steps to take to specifically protect porn viewing habits. Using anti-tracker software like DuckDuckGo may help, but to really protect yourself, you’ll need to use a VPN.

The fact of the matter is you aren’t going to stop PornHub or any tube site from keeping tabs on what you watch. The best you can do is make sure they don’t know who you are.

…Or you could go back to reading magazines. That’s probably safe.


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

Here are the cheapest plans available for Australia’s most popular NBN speed tier.

At Lifehacker, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments