Watching pornography is rather widely accepted in the Western male culture - gone are the days of subscribing to porn magazines, and hiding them from spouses. It is simple to click onto a porn website, view the images, and quickly close the web browser. This easy access can spiral into addiction for some people, especially those who may have an abundance of free time or a lack of strong interpersonal romantic or sexual bonds.
2
I wondered why we were having so many gas explosions on TV then I realized the nature of news has changed with the proliferation of surveillance/door bell cameras. Weather reporting has also changed as everyone can record a tornado.
1
Click EVERYWHERE people. Randomly. Purposefully on the most egregious content imaginable, it is now your patriotic duty to muddy the waters. Turn all this tracking data into useless gray static. Possibly it ironic, but It’s the only chance we have. Think of it as collective camouflage.
9
@Matthew
I think you'll like the website/project, "internet noise" for the purpose you describe.
1
If you're accessing free info, entertainment etc., then YOU are the product. NOTHING is for free.
Wipe those browsers and history's folks!
You may also want to entrust/instruct a close friend or family member to wipe/destroy your hard drive if you die.
Welcome to the digital age.
6
As a writer who researches a wide range of subjects, including sexual, um, stuff, it is weird and creepy to be the object of advertisements having to do with some of those online investigations.
Even the use of an online thesaurus has netted me some weird ads.
There is no privacy anymore or discretion or innocence.
9
I wish the 2020 candidates would talk more about the issue of these massive tech companies especially in the debates. In my opinion, reining in these massive tech companies should be one of the center issues of the 2020 presidential campaign.
For one, having these companies pay their fair share of taxes would generate billions in revenue for the government which could then be used to help fund humanitarian aid packages at the border, fix the healthcare system, etc.
Also, like Warzel was saying, these companies privacy practices are very shady at best. Facebook definitely showed us that with the whole Cambridge Analytica scandal. These companies have so much data on us, they have the power to make the difference in who gets elected to the most powerful office in the world.
I know Google, Amazon, Facebook etc. have incredible marketing that paint them as the saviors of the world ushering humanity into the 21st century. Not to say that they haven't done any of good, but at the end of the day they actually are large corporations whose primary goal is PROFITS just like any other big company.
As long as the government stands by, they will continue their unethical privacy practices and skirt taxes. I just hope something is done soon.
3
Have they no shame?
Is nothing sacred these days?
Can't a citizen be allowed some digital privacy when they return home from a hard day's work at the ice cream factory?
What next?
Will they be now be listening in to my calls to my Priest?
52
No. No shame. None whatsoever. It’s not part of the algorithm.
Your shame, however.... now THAT can be sliced and diced.
6
@simon sez Please see responses below:
No
Nope
That's a sweet job
No way of knowing
Only if he uses a bluetooth headset
5
@simon sez snrk; thanks for the giggle.
I very rarely check my spam folder, but when I did a few days ago, I was shocked to find an email attempting to blackmail me. It included a string of characters that it said was one of many passwords I use (it was correct) and instructed me to send a specified amount of bitcoin via a set of instructions. It said that it had specific information related to my use of pornographic websites AND video of me while visiting those sites, obtained through my computer's camera, and that if they did not receive the amount demanded, they would email the video to everyone in my address book.
I do in fact visit pornographic websites, like many people all over the world.
I considered unlikely that the blackmailers have video of me, if for no other reason than I have a post-it note always stuck over my computer's camera (after reading an article many years ago that Mark Zuckerberg, bless his heart, does the same thing).
After a few moments of panic, I decided to delete the email. I guess if whoever those folks are do in fact have video of me, and they're irate that they didn't get the (surprisingly small) ransom requested, all my friends, family, random co-workers, former girlfriends, etc. will have video of me with contorted expressions on my face. I feel sorry for them (my friends and family AND the blackmailers).
110
@A Lee. They got your password by hacking the site where you use that password. Then they invent the story that they have intruded into your computer because it’s a scarier story. The claim of having a video, when that’s not possible, is a dead giveaway.
It costs almost nothing for them to send emails so they cast a wide net hoping for a few to succumb to the story.
105
@A Lee
You have nothing to worry about. The password is most likely your LinkedIn password and associated email address. There was a data breach in 2016, and that's where they got your password. I received the exact same extortion threat, and my IT department traced it to that. Change your LinedIn password if you haven't already, and any others that use that password.
34
I received this one as well, but interestingly, the pw wasn’t one, but a string of characters I definitely would have used in an email, in this case to my alumni class website, so I informed them. Crickets so far.
6
"“These porn sites need to think more about the data that they hold and how it’s just as sensitive as something like health information,” said Elena Maris, a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft and the study’s lead author. “Protecting this data is crucial to the safety of its visitors."
If porn addiction is so harmless, then why do so many men and women keep it a secret from their significant others or spouses? If it is perfectly innocent, as innocent as looking at viral cats and dogs, why do people not only hide the fact that they do this but they also hide the amount of time and money they spend doing it? Why do people need to have their privacy protected while doing this? Why is looking at online porn such a sub-rosa and secretive act that needs the same protection as health information?
Could it be that porn addiction causes relationship failure? Could it possibly be that if one's significant other finds out that you are addicted to porn, their feelings would be crushed?
https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/the-possible-pitfalls-of-too-much-porn/
Yup. The truth is that it is very common when partners find out that their other half has been consuming porn, for them to feel a range of negative emotions including rejection, humiliation, loneliness, jealousy, anger, low self-esteem, and shame.
That's why the writer advocates for privacy protection for pornographic websites. That way, the watcher can keep on lying, deceiving and being dishonest.
I gave a 12 year old hacker girl a large bag of chips and a couple liters of soda to track my stuff. She reported NSA and similar outfits had captured all my data and flagged it " W-TBFFA" (worthless - too boring for further action).
Security: I don't look like food so Carnivore ignores me.
Americans have a conceptual problem . They cannot fathom the idea of intentionality .
They can go over the behavioral superficial level but they cannot conceive or even question, before that , the intentionality . The reason for the action is forclosed .
1
It is increasingly obvious that social networks and cyber tools are making efficient autocrats, like China, more efficient. Soft authoritarians, like USA, more fragile and Western democracies increasingly ungovernable.
Alphabet, Amazon, FaceBuck&Rubles, YouGoobe, Apple, Microsoft, Google represents a far more sinister threat on open societies than all radical ideology combined.
Alphabet, Google parent company, does have a clever plan addressing that. The no-consent surveillance economy. Everyone on the same page. Dissent, auto-reformatted thus, annihilated.
Personal data is the new oil. If you thought China was digging it faster and cheaper, you're most probably wrong.
1
Browser Incognito mode == all new cookies.
Do not log into Facebook, GMail or any other website from your "incognito" browser and you will remain "anonymous".
Nothing in this article or the Microsoft funded research that sparked this article explains how "incognito" mode works.
For most readers understanding Incognito mode and what it does and doesn't do is more useful than the sensationalism of this article.
NYTimes would do its readers a service to explain "incognito" mode. And "location history" which is super useful if you ever lose your phone but also means my wife if she had my gmail password could discover every bedroom I've been in in the last 10 years.
In the case of Privacy solid reporting and advice from the NYTimes and other media is likely more important and helpful than privacy laws can ever be.
1
Those trackers are installed by the website owners/designers, not Google. Stop hyping up things that are not a big deal.
Who's watching the watchers of the watchers?
1
Your cable box and smart TV know what you are watching as well. Your interests and politics are now no secret.
What is greatly missing in the article here is the economical side.
As always when big business do something it is for a monetary reason .
The economy side always escape the Americans. they don't read Marx. The economy aspect is always the blind corner as it is most of the time and here in particular the main hidden reason.
How and why Google and Facebook collect data from porn websites ?
because they pay for them. It is revenue for the porn industry. Even if Google or facebook won't state the reasons they do it and thet do it without telling you , which is already dishonest,, they actually do it. And they pay for it so there must be a gain for them somewhere.
But for some strange reason, it escapes completely the author of the article or , and , the researchers. Private Data collecting is an advertising tool. it is commerce. It is hard currency. Maybe Facebook and Google resell those datas to some other industry (medical ? ) and won't say to whom or why .
Americans are completely cynical in their business ventures. And they always have been. Secret and amoral most of the time along history.
Use TOR when visiting these sites. Do not use FB, use duck, duck go for search. If folks knew what FB was doing on their Windows system, they would delete their account and change their underwear.
1
How is this news? The NY Times's own Emily Steel did a deep dive on this nearly six years ago, while at the Financial Times. She used Ghostery data to illustrate her piece. It's still there, and still clear.
https://www.ft.com/content/f7c54d1a-5cee-11e3-a558-00144feabdc0
The real news is what remains not clear - the privacy policy for Google's free Apps, which is wholly different from its regular privacy policy. Anyone at NYT interested in covering that?
3
I predict Congressional action within a year.
2
College students often get Amazon Prime benefits for free or at a deep discount and are able to purchase lower priced used textbooks. What privacy are they sacrificing? If their parents don’t know to explain, are the universities which are the go-between in the deal, required to disclose?
1
Years ago as I was signing up for FB, I became concerned about all of the info they were asking of me just to register, so deleted & never joined. Haven't missed a thing. I also use the Dutch search engine "Ixquick" that keeps no record of searches, and has no ads, great results. It all works just fine. That, and with a few tracking blockers, using the net is without ads and with at least some modicum of privacy.
5
Facebook and Google do it for money reasons .
Why is it not in the article ?
The economy aspect is missing.
Google and facebook pay those website owners to fish private data on their websites and collect it, analyze it, etc...
they do it for money reasons, advertising purposes, as everything they do.
I've known for sometime, Google & Facebook wouldn't be able to draw a self imposed line regarding privacy. Like me, you should stay one step ahead of these two giants. Since 2012, I only fool around with the lights off.
4
My life is over. Why, oh why don't I live in Europe (or any other place) where nudity and sexual behavior is considered a legitimate component of normal life? It's too late for me, but you others, you readers, save yourselves!
101
Of course, I noticed this years ago. I always assumed this was happening after Facebook began advertising LGBTQ legal services to me on its site (Lambda Legal ads for days comes to mind). I'm only out to a handful of people in my life (and definitely not on Facebook or the internet), and don't do any other "shopping" that would clue Facebook in on my preferences.
126
@Oats: Sorry, but of course you are out on the Internet. The alias under which you just declared your orientation is easily linked to your actual identity, even if you think you’ve taken measures to protect yourself.
At the bottom of this article about privacy you will find a disclosure that those of us who read it are being logged as having done so. That no doubt includes these comments. George Orwell and Joesph Heller would have loved the irony: Big Brother, meet Catch 22.
29
I don't understand why Americans don't get behind the same kind of privacy laws that restrict these and other kinds of tracking efforts in the EU. It seems like the right approach, even if it might reduce the revenues of large tech firms like Google.
Would we allow firms to send private detectives to follow us around a shopping mall and sell the findings to other firms? I think we all know the answer, so let's apply the same approach to online activity. A little bit of Thomas Payne's Common. Sense is needed.
240
@doug Americans can't even decide whether or not health care for all of it's citizens in a good idea. So while I share your sentiment, I will not be holding my breath.
131
@doug
What @WeAreWeary said. These companies make tens of billions of dollars, with similar amounts in the bank. "Lobbying" is an important budget line item. They can and do also spend millions upon millions on throwing pricey lawyers at government regulators.
25
@doug . oh - Americans DO want this- but our aged policitians: don''t understand, or, don't want to give up the nice bucks that come their way for avoiding the topic. See what happens in a free society?
21
I’m afraid that this information can be used for blackmail of our elected officials. Not necessarily because they are using the websites, but because, perhaps, their 17 year old son or 13 year old daughter frequents such sites.
13
@A. Greene Is that kind of what happened to Jeff Flake and sons I wonder?
2
@A. Greene They're using the websites too, trust me.
5
At this point safety in number is the only hope. GO visit every website you imagine. Muddy the waters. Make it impossible to create a profile. Visit 4chan, go to porn sites, go to all the worst sites you can imagine. Click on links, do it on a second laptop that you don't access your accounts on. Click everywhere. Muddy the waters. Equalize all of us. Make it impossible to understand what makes you different. Remove the target from your back by putting all the targets on your back, on your neighbor's back, etc. etc.
And delete your Facebook and Twitter accounts. And boycott Amazon.
15
We could delete your Facebook and not use google/chrome if it were that important to us. There are alternatives. I think there is a lot of fake outrage here.
Boycotts work.
5
Yipes. What about those of us who own Chromebooks. Have we invited Google into our homes?
1
It is strange that US citizens be so ignorant about their own industries. The debate is present in Europe since several years and the EU recently passed laws to try to protect Europeans from the abuse of private data appropriation.
If you go on Yahoo France , even from the USA, you have to sign an agreement and you have a choice over which personal data you wish to voluntarily share . At least it is in the conscience .
And of course to enforce that, we had to fight an army of US lawyers and lobbyists sent to counter or impeach the law to be voted.
Americans are completely ignorant about the way their personal identity is being commercially used . It is strange for a nation that refers constantly to its exigence of freedom.
In the EU ,the director of " concurrence " (anti trust ) Margrethe Vestager, who unfortunately was not named president of the commission , but kept her position, is investigating Google again for infringing the laws. Google who bought Instagram and Whatsap , uses tax loopholes to avoid taxation in Europe and those tax schemes are not compatible with the cross use of data on the Google different platforms . M Vestager already fined Google once 270 million euro . Google just repatriated 20 billion dollars in 2019 back to the US from its European business without paying 1 $ in tax to the European community. These 20 billion $ are profits made by having European companies pay advertising on Google platforms.
1
There are 22,484 pornography sites? Are we humans or bonobos?
But on a more serious note, it is essential to become absolutely paranoid in one's employment of anti-tracking, anti-cookie tools and browsers. Most people blindly trust the internet because that Chrome UI looks so innocuous. But this technology used to refine the targeting of ads can so easily be turned to far more nefarious purposes.
I scrub my computer, use VPN, and wherever possible employ Duck Duck Go rather than Google. I have adblockers and Ghostery anti-trackers. I boycotted Facebook a long time ago. Nonetheless, I am amazed at how well-targeted some the ads that I do see are.
A major vulnerability is the tracking you can't turn off when using an app. Like yours, dear Times. Can you please do something about that?
5
In other words, an actual child is a prerequisite before hiring a babysitter?
"Oracle, which owns a number of large data brokers and has
been called a “privacy deathstar,” could, for example add data collected by trackers with its current profiles."
Oracle, based on the information presented in the article, ought to be on the Times' and news media radars and scrutinized by the feds just as Facebook, Twitter, and Google.
4
Everybody should contact their elected representatives and demand they outlaw any company from keeping any information about you! If Facebook et al. go bankrupt, so be it.
1
@David J. Krupp The entire Internet would collapse. Society had the choice of paying for services, but decided to sell our information for "free services". We now understand the cost of "free".
3
In Europe we have passed laws against the use of private data by big Tech corporations .
We had to fight an army of US lawyers and lobbyists.
if you go on Yahoo . France or yahoo UK ( Uk still in EU ) or yahoo DE. (Germany ) you have to sign an agreement and choose what private data you accept to share.
Even from the USA .
Qwant, a French search engine does not use any cookies or keep any history.
4
"What these companies might be doing with pornography-site browsing data is a mystery." Well, these data are of high value. If you offer the things /pictures to persons prone to specific pratices e.g. children pornography you are very likely to have a good turn out. The German President Wulff's wife Bettina was once smeared with an alleged past as an escort girl. Google immediately offered auto complete suggestions with "pornography" etc. leading to sites with many adds and potentially big revenue for Google.
And after having watched all of us, I'm sure they go home and do the same thing.
3
I've known for sometime, Google & Facebook wouldn't be able to draw a self imposed line regarding privacy. Like me, you should stay one step ahead of these two giants. Since 2012, I only full around with the lights off.
1
“Nearly all tracking is by default and governed by impossible-to-read privacy policies.”
So true!
I don’t think our governorment is going to be helping us on this anytime soon.
I think we need an advocacy organization/lobby for the tens/hundreds of millions of us who want some practical opt out option for the dozens of websites,of all kinds, that a person visits. My inbox has grown tremendously since these so-called privacy options appeared.
Is this something we almost all have in common?
1
I don't think even shutting down one's internet accounts will matter. After mingling at a birthday party for a Latino friend where most everyone spoke Spanish and I do not, I suddenly started getting advertisements in Spanish when I searched for something later in the day.
Your camera is always on and so is your microphone. Big Brother is watching and listening.
3
"The study found that only 17 percent of the 22,484 sites scanned were encrypted, suggesting that troves of user data could be vulnerable to hacking or breaches."
Yeah, yeah. What freaks me out is that there are twenty-two THOUSAND, four hundred and eighty four pornography websites.
What does that say about us?
5
That "Google and Facebook Are Quietly Tracking You on Sex Websites" is all well and good—powerful, multinational private corporations largely run this world and, therefore, they largely do whatever they want.
But because The New York Times is also a powerful, multinational private corporation (and one of the worlds' most powerful privately owned media corporations), the more important (and most obvious) question that must be answered here: "Is The New York Times Also Tracking You on Sex Websites?"
In fact, in this entire "The Privacy Project," when is The New York Times going to report to its global readership where and when and how "The Newspaper of Record" is quietly tracking us?
1
Reading this article and contributing this comment is a signal. Of what, I'm not sure.
Is this how they caught Epstein?
2
Holy Nightmare Batman, there are 22,484 pornography sites on the Web.!!!! We'd better get going to warn everyone in Gotham City that their being tracked.
You are a crusading DA who proposes to send Facebook or Wells Fargo execs to prison for white-collar crimes. But you learn that they have your browsing history on porn websites. You end your investigation.
4
I barely have any vices left!
I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I drive at the speed limit. I don’t jump the line.
And I’m going to continue watching my free porn!
So let them track me. It’s plain vanilla stuff anyway.
10
For the first few years of the public internet, the majority of its traffic was porn.
2
@Steve Bolger
When I was in graduate school, the university found that 93% of the Internet traffic over its networks was porn. It seemed to come as a shock to some people. Did they think students were studying and faculty were researching?!?
For porn aficionados, buy a cheap tablet, install a VPN in it, disable most of the apps especially Google, use it exclusively for your porn habit nothing else, delete your browsing history and browser data after each use and every so often reset to the factory settings to wipe all personal information. Other than giving up porn this is the best you can do to hide from Big Brother but it still might not be enough.
4
It’s the internets ugly secret that maybe 50 percent or more of internet traffic is just looking at porn. It’s an appealing market for any commercial endeavor.
1
Nothing surprising here, we all figured this all along. There is no privacy anywhere online. ANYWHERE!
4
"The researchers found that visitors to most sex sites have almost no way of knowing if a major tech company has cookies or trackers embedded in its sites, and they were able to locate privacy policiesClose X for only 17 percent of the scanned sites."
3 easy to follow rules for knowing if a site has trackers/cookies:
1) someone is always tracking you
2) see rule 1
3) see rule 2
follow these rules and take measures to protect yourself
4
Not mentioned here is that your ISP is tracking every web[age you go to. With net neutrality and other restrictions gone, they are selling your data to any and every 3rd party that will pay them. With them, you have no choice.
6
I use pornographic sites and have nothing to hide, although who knows how far the present trend of policing people's words might extend to people's sexual fantasies.
3
@sansacro You may have nothing to hide if the recording of what you saw is accurate. But with >22,484 porn sites, there are bound to be some with low housekeeping standards. Your viewing of mainstream, legal porn might well be recorded somewhere - incorrectly - as viewing of illegal content.
More generally, across the board, "I have nothing to hide" assumes accurate records, it assumes no malice or lazy shortcuts, it assumes mistakes will be corrected if they are contested and high levels of professionalism among public officers if you are ever inadvertently caught up in a net laid for an unrelated target. Goodness, we have all heard of innocent people executed - rare and extreme events, but they exist at the end of a long tail of less extreme outcomes.
7
@sansacro
Just because you feel that you have nothing to hid/be ashamed of doesn't mean this will not hurt you and hurt you bad. When all of a sudden you don't get that loan or for no good reason that apartment isn't rented to you, stop and think Why? And then think about this article.
5
"Google and Facebook Are Quietly Tracking You on Sex Websites."
Considering that I've been on a sex website ,Google and Facebook could not be tracking me on sex websites, quietly or otherwise.
Only a matter of time before this kind of information will and can be used against you and anyone. Someone needs to write “2084 - the update”.
6
That explains the Ashley Madison ads popping up all over.
2
I'm dead. But so is everybody else.
1
@E No, not ashamed. As some of the other comments say, if someone (including the government) wants to use the information against me, they have the goods. My response will be determined if and when that occurs.
1
I have seen comments around the web saying that one’s YouTube recommendations (aka The Algorithm) are apt to change based on one’s pornography viewing history. I have certainly been recommended some very weird and indeed sexually-related things in my YT recommendations, and now I realize the extent to which this is true, and the extent to which I’m being tracked and my web browsing choices monetized.
Congress: please step in.
4
"Digital Privacy" Really? Seriously? You are kidding, right? If ever there were an a more oxymoronic oxymoron.
7
Can we please replace the euphemism "shares information" with the more accurate "sells information"? For The Times, Facebook and Google alike?
16
I'll stop now.
5
@José Franco Why bother? It's going in your obituary anyway under digital friends, acquaintenances and interests.
1
@Rodrian Roadeye You're right! I'm back!
1
Blackmail is cheaper than bribery. Is it any wonder that the whole US Congress looks like puppets on chains?
9
Several friends and I have noticed that after we watch porn a virus seems to affect google calendar and our instagram accounts. We get a lot of google calendar invites and follow requests from sexually deviant online personas. Does this have something to do with what the article is about? Seems like it would.
1
disable 3rd party cookies in your browser.
2
@dave Why make the Cookie Monster angrier?
So far I haven't bought or read anything sent to me because my data was gathered, NYT included. Just use your brain and teach your children that clicking more often does not make anything, including yourself, better.
2
Install DuckDuckGo on your device. The browser blocks all trackers and deletes all data when you're through. Be careful out there
6
do farmed salmon fry know they're not free? we're safe in our numbers.
3
I use NoScript on Firefox to block all scripts not necessary for the website to function. Thus, I never allow Google or Facebook to run ANY scripts.
Does that protect me?
1
@Garak
No. Take a look at Ghostery.
And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows
L. Cohen, 1988
12
Ha ha,
Since I’m a dirty old man I visit ladies bikini sites.
Then for weeks I’m plastered with women in bikini
ads.
13
As a criminal defense attorney my first reaction is that some of the data collected will provide evidence to law enforcement of illegal activities, e.g. creating child porn. Works for me!
5
Facebook's going to blackmail the world! There's a Black Mirror episode for you.
4
Privacy is important, but Americans also need to get over their perpetual sexual embarrassment.
10
This brave new world grows more disgusting by the hour.
8
"In the cases of Google and Facebook, which refuse to host pornographic sexual content on a number of their platforms, it’s not always clear why they are collecting such sensitive information, even if unintentionally."
"[N]ot always clear"? "Unintentionally"? Wow, Mr. Warzel really needs to read Shoshana Zuboff's "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism." She quotes Google engineers and execs saying "We know more about you than you know about yourself." Their goal is to know everything that's knowable about you. With the information Google gets from your porn site visits, and thousands of other sources, it is able to produce and sell predictions of your future behavior that are approaching certainty, and it is continuing to develop and sell products to buyers who have an interest in modifying your behavior to suit them. Google's goal (and Facebook's, Oracle's, etc. ) is to develop products that can modify behavior as precisely and reliably as they can predict behavior.
It seems likely that tracking users on their porn visits provides a rich source of data on psychology and character, once combined by AI and machine learning programs with all the other data, for developing such products.
7
wha..whaa...wait.. Are you suggesting porn sites actually actively become overnight beacons of civic responsibility and no longer just want to exploit young women and your men's primal urges?
Good luck with that.
9
The sex police will be at it again, if they're not already. This time, they know exactly who you are.
That information alone is worth a fortune.
Americans, especially religion, which has a fetish for anything anti-sex, will perpetuate victimization, the selling of what is in your brain, not between your legs, and they'll just go along when the sex police arrive at your metaphorical door.
They have always wanted to know who might be having sex. Sex is bad and we will get you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Drive it underground.
Actually, it never left.
"“These porn sites need to think more about the data that they hold and how it’s just as sensitive as something like health information,”"
The whole purpose of porn is to reduce human beings to objects. Why expect the sites to think about anything?
12
There as re 22,484 pornography websites?
5
@Pat
I am surprised there are that few
4
"The New York Times embeds similar trackers and collects, uses and shares data about readers as part of its business practices."
Shares with whom?
8
@NorthernVirginia
And "as part of its business practices." Translation: to sell.
2
How ludicrous to speak about “consent” only as it theoretically impacts the consumer, in the same breath as discussing bestiality and teenage porn.
6
Google and fb are so gross.
4
Well duh! Of course they are!
Who are the biggest voyeurs in the porn racket? The visitors or the trackers?
2
Good grief! Are there really in excess of 22,484 porn sites?
How much of total internet activity is that?
Is that what lies behind the demand for faster broadband speeds?
8
@Keith Thomas
According to Statista 4% of web sites are porn and 13% of searches (20% on mobile) are for porn. In the 18-35 age range, 87% of men and 29% of women watch porn.
Note that reliable statistics are notoriously difficult to obtain. Some far higher numbers are claimed, usually by those with an ax to grind.
2
So, with FB and Google knowing that most Senators, Representatives, Federal judges and Administration officials, including the President, have s massive habit of seeing pornography, we are most unlikely to ever see EU style privacy rules take effect in the US. Presumably those perusers of porn live too much in fear of their browsing history being revealed by those in the know to cross up the holders of that information that they dare not act on our behalf.
5
All I can say is thank god I am not famous. Thank god nobody gives a damn who I am or what I do. There are advantages to being a nobody.
13
Damn! And to think that covering that little camera on your laptop would be enough...
2
I use a vpn. I use Firefox. I've set it to delete all cookies and site data every time I close it. I block all trackers and all ads always. I'm not on Facebook. I have an email address using my own url and my email account is hosted by Rackspace. And, I will never put a device like Alexa in my home.
At least I'm making it as difficult as reasonably possible to be tracked. And, no one's making money off of me for advertising purposes, because I never see any ads.
It's really pathetic how much the politicians in the US allow corporations to get away with in regard to privacy. I like the suggestion someone made about moving to an EU country. For retirement, we very well may do that.
8
This is not surprising at all. There is no such thing as digital privacy.
I always felt that instinctively and now it’s being proven factually. What’re you gonna do?
9
Internet privacy is a myth.
At this time, the corporations own US--they own our jobs, they own our debts, they own our government.
23
Neither article nor comments have mentioned the possibility of law enforcement using this data to track child pornography/pornographers or predators.... Perhaps, a good thing. And for those who use the consenting adults argument, how do you know if there is a consenting adult on the other side?
Pornography diminishes the humanity of subject/object and viewer—not as in morality (societal/cultural judgement) but in the realm of spiritual reality (the Eternal/metaphysical realm and “why are we here?”)—an essay beyond the scope of this article. Clearly though, if you’re online, whatever you do is potentially public—buyer beware.
18
@SomethingElse My understanding is that the kind of illegal content you are talking about isn't found at established sites, but ones that shift around and are harder to track.
2
@SomethingElse
By your logic, the Venuses of Willendorf and Milo did the same, 30,000 and 2,000 years ago, and the cave paintings of Altamira diminished the spiritual reality of hunting. The question remains the same in every realm: where do you draw the line?
1
This raises a question about all websites: does browsing with a VPN offer real privacy protection?
15
@Lev Raphael I was using the French search engine Qwant as an extension on Safari. Qwant does not keep cookies or history. But just recently Safari stopped supporting Qwant .
For what reason? Safari does not say. Probably money . Apple cannot resell your browsing data if you use a cookie free search engine.
In her outstanding book, "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism," Shoshana Zuboff observes that, just as European colonizers simply *assumed* ownership and the right to exploit the lands and peoples they "discovered," so "big data" companies (Facebook, Google, Oracle et al make their money almost exclusively by vacuuming up and selling personal data from users) *assumed* that they own data generated by individual users.
And just as with those who were colonized, "end users" at no point consented to this massive theft, in this case by big-data colonizers.
39
Use a VPN service (not owned by China) and private mode together.
11
@km Also consider using the TOR (Firefox based) browser.
1
@km
It's cute you think private mode actually protects your privacy. Sure cookies are blocked, but ISPs still have full visibility.
Best option: Be a man and give up porn.
5
@km have heard that even that does not keep you totally untracked.
The companies involved want to know everything about everyone, so why wouldn't they want to know this. They themselves may not yet know what they might do with this data, but they want to have it anyway, on general principles. On the other hand, perhaps they do have ideas for what they might do with this data. It's hard to believe that they're doing absolutely nothing with it. Presumably the websites themselves gain financially, at least in the short term, from not being secure. It seems that there are close to no businesses whose executives are thinking in any other terms.
13
@Stephen Merritt--No doubt, eventual blackmail. Everything is for sale, here.
1
@Stephen Merritt
They know EXACTLY what they want to do with it. Monetize Baby!
1
Two thoughts.
1. One of the researchers stated, “This isn’t picking out a sweater and seeing it follow you across the web. This is so much more specific and deeply personal.” I would suggest that the very reason these big companies track this data is because they don’t see any difference between our sweater buying habits and sexual preferences. The modern consumer is constantly told to buy and choose in a discerning manner that defines their personality. Thus, the red sweater identifies our uniqueness and companies want to continue to profit from our unique view of ourselves in every way they can. To me, this is the logical progression of that concept. So, whiles I don’t like it, it doesn’t surprise me.
2. In regards to the idea that this problem is akin to issues sexual consent, I’m concerned about “concept creep” as defined by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff in their book, “The Coddling of the American Mind”. It brings forth a question of what exactly it means to violate someone sexually and while we certainly need a broader definition than intercourse, too broad a definition can be problematic, as it limits an individuals personal liberty by undercutting their responsibility to understand the risks and rewards of visiting pornographic sites.
14
Expect Google & Facebook etc to start using intermediaries - so that you won't know it's Google or Facebook - to blackmail users of such sites. Great new revenue source.
8
@Rethinking They might do this. Alternatively, employees within Google or Facebook could be persuaded to look the other way when a "data theft" by a third party happens.
1
When you visit a website, accepting cookies allows the site to save some of your data so the next time you visit it doesn't have to load the same information twice. This eliminates redundant information passing, allows for a better browsing experience. The purpose of cookies isn't only malicious in intent.
6
The writer pointed that out in the beginning of the article.
But when she added "even in Incognito mode," that made me shudder. It seems Chrome's Incognito mode may be more of a ruse, designed to give users a false sense of security.
Use Safari or Firefox private modes instead- at least those companies arent also in the ad business.
4
@Alexia WHO ASKED US if we want a "better browsing experience"? This arrogant response is infuriating. Many of us prefer the choice of a non-optimal browsing experience to Big Brother marketing memes that are money-makers for the benevolent website mavens.
1
@highway
Then don't accept cookies, it's your choice. Just like the interstate there are basic infrastructure needs in terms of traffic and volume, as you must know. No one seems to care much about optimal driving experience. Personally, texting and driving worries me far more than what I do on the net.
Privacy can be a shield for all kinds of behavior. One can argue that the shield of privacy is behind all kinds of bullying, targeting, abuse, etc. Something to consider as well in the privacy conversation.
9
@Hpower
This sounds a lot like the so-far-left-its-right argument I'm hearing now against free speech.
Authoritarianism isn't my cup of tea
18
@Hpower. Wait until face recognition software and cameras are everywhere, you will not have to worry about privacy being a shield ever again. Big Brother will be there at all times and all places.
1
@Nonpartisan sure. Stealing your data and selling it is free speech.
No wonder Gmail keeps showing an ad asking if I have emailed my step sister lately.
139
@Sammy the Rabbit
Thanks for this great moment, I get caught laughing out loud during a business meeting!
14
Thanks for the belly laugh, Sammy.
3
AdGuard Pro, people (always get the paid version!). Also has the fringe benefit of letting you know how many trackers it has blocked. The numbers are shocking even to me, and I work in IT.
44
A great add-on, and you're right, it is shocking to see how many trackers it blocks. It's true that some websites block users who block ads, so my solution is to never visit those sites again. Problem solved.
23
@Jens Jensen Brave browser has a similar feature and it’s free. There’s also a few privacy oriented search engines.
1
So I’m tracked. Then what? If I was the only one, one un hundreds, in thousands or even in tens of thousands perhaps I’d be worried. I’m one in hundreds of millions. What are they going to do? Send a squad of sales reps to my door? Bombard me with irresistible advertisements that I’ll buy myself bankrupt? Display my profile on the Times Square giant ticker? I can live with targeted online billboards. I sense a lot of paranoia when it comes to online exposure but can still not really understand the underlying threat.
28
It seems to me that it’s implied that the data could be associated with the individual and therefore be used to blackmail them (or something else nefarious). This would be very concerning for regular folks all the way up to
People working at the highest levels of business and elected office.
52
My thoughts also. Where is the discussion of why this tracking is a danger or what are the consequences? I might blush if my on line habits were revealed, but that's about it. I suppose I'm luck, other people might have more reason to worry about their privacy. But advertising makes content free. I'm grateful for the free content. (Although I do wish I'd chosen a more anonymous user name. LOL)
4
That might be true. There are too many people to put on a billboard. It is not too many though, to affect hiring decisions, influemce your loan application, or even your insurance rates (too many searches on a specific symptom). You aren't seeing where this could be headed.
35
I assume most everything is tracked. But I guess banks have some defenses or we would have chaos. I guess if you want privacy you could try using a good VPN and Duck Duck Go. That’s about as far as I’d take it. I don’t really have much to hide. Anybody tracking me would probably get bored pretty quickly.
27
I have always assumed that nothing on-line is private. I know how corporations operate. I also know that most Americans are either criminals or very accepting of criminality for money. So it seems unlikely that anyone will ever do anything about on-line privacy in the US. We should assume everything is tracked and recorded for various purposes, but mostly to make money.
36
I use "Popular Internet Links" to block tracking, so they say'. Don't know if it works. How would I? There is no charge though I have attempted to donate to help it continue with no luck. No CC #'s were released.
2
Privacy has become a mythical creature, a unicorn, in our world. People are eager to share their information with companies who might use it for targeted advertising but worse is the enthusiasm with which people share even more personal data like their DNA. Big Brother is watching and there is little any of us can do about it. I've often wondered why my face is on my ten year old passport instead of my genitals; the former has changed a lot, the latter not so much. Maybe we're focusing on the wrong things. And if anyone wants to see my profile on Xtube I'll happily share it. I have written two books and if their sales were even close to what my Xtube profile has achieved my publishers would be thrilled.
7
The most unsurprising news of the day.
Whoever trusts either Google or Facebook is woefully naïve. At the very least use Edge or Firefox with Duck Duck Go and AdBlock and Ghostery. That's just basic. If you have a Facebook account it's pretty hopeless though.
23
@SL
Thanks for your info on alternate sites.
I do worry that if we use other sites, Google and others will simply monitor those sites.
I agree with the commentators who say that anytime we are on line, we are being monitored.
Even corporate copy machines latch on to the items we print. Our phones are tracked. Our purchases are tracked. Our health is tracked. Everything that we put into the box is tracked. The only way to stop this, is not to be online...ever. And that’s pretty much impossible.
Mother always said to not write down anything that you do not expect to be read by others.
5
@-tkf
What if we collectively decided that we did not want to allow ourselves to be tracked, passed a few laws with teeth, and made it illegal to track us...and then sent a few folks who didn't believe we really meant that to jail for a long time.
45
@Ben Bryant Quite right. It could be done. We choose not to.
6
I read the article. I have no idea at all what the technologies described do or are doing, other than that the authors think they are bad. How about a clear explanation?
29
The Russians were able to divide America and facilitate Trump’s election simply by knowing what a couple of 10s of millions of Americans “liked” or “disliked” on their newsfeed. Imagine what they - or others - could do if they knew not only your age, gender, race, political leanings, education, basic psyche profile, preferred products, and shopping history, but also your kinks?
2
Doesn't matter much if you avoid Facebook etc. Why would I want to be tracked for my sexual preferences - or indeed anything else?
4
We would be dupes if we believed that these companies put trackers on porn sites if they didn't see a way to profit from it. Every gmail, every facebook post or message, every website we visit is tracked ad infinitum, to develop a complete profile on each of us. (And it doesn't matter what browser you use either.) What they say in public should be treated as merely public relations. Do you think that makers of violent video games would ever admit that their products could potentially influence a few impressionable young minds into acting out in the real world with real weapons? Do you think that porn sites care that young children are exposed to their wares from a tender age? Or that gun makers care about the 100+ people dying in America of gun violence a day, or drug companies that pushed opioids for profits while killing 70K/yr? It is a profit driven corporate world, and whether gun, drug, wall street, or tech, the drivers are same.
49
That’s why apple’s safari blocked third party cookie by default, and you can also turn that on in Firefox. whereas that option is not so clear on chrome
8
Well, everything is tracked and it always was. Why would anyone think they had anonymity on line?
5
Not clear from the article whether incognito mode makes any difference.
8
It doesn’t. Without comprehensive blocking of cookies and other nefarious tech, anonymous browsing simply protects your habits from other family members. The corporations on the other end know your habits, and your browser history is irrelevant.
14
I noticed a year ago that the ads on the online Washington Post I was reading changed in real time in response to my children's conversations if Alexa was plugged in.
Big Brother is here. Big Brother is corporate, rather than federal. However, this is a distinction without a difference in a nation where the government is bought and owned by big money and huge multinational corporations. Silicon valley corporations are already cooperating with China. If the US government goes Fascist, there is no question Alphabet and Facebook would go along and share data with the government in order to survive and profit.
Demand privacy. Demand accountability. Vote the plutocrats out before it is too late.
142
@enzibzianna
Why do you have or use Alexa if you have concerns about privacy?
49
@enzibzianna
ummmm. It's already too late.
All the kings horses...
2
@enzibzianna
Facebook should be a service funded by user fees, or contributions as Wikpedia is, or, better yet, taxes, like public libraries and parks and community meeting halls.
1
Americans have chosen to sacrifice privacy for convenience. Pity. The payoff won't be pleasant.
14
@Tony Long
I don't remember having the capacity to choose.
27
Try duckduckgo as your search engine.
6
I always ignored the ''go incognito'' blandishments because we're talking computers, not corncobs. Now it seems the people ignoring those appeals were right.
You want to be secret? Go virtual private network.
That way, you can even check out the Rush Limbaugh Betsy Ross shirt and the local party boss can't find out about it even if she works for Google....
8
Apple etc why exactly does my phone have an advertising identification number?
11
@JamesHK
Because phone numbers identify people.
Who cares!
Have trained my brain to just ignore all advertising on the web Don't even see it! That includes you...NYT (sorry). Don't know how much my digital subscription is and don't want to look it up, but is the best bang for the buck (& Netflix).
Have read today approximately 18 articles in the Times. Do not recall any advertising!
Same goes for television, of the few programs on broadcast that are recorded auto to my Comcast DVR, used to have to press FF when viewing to skip the commercials, now is just Auto Resume. (Think this is new as doesn't work on all, but still have the FF at five different speeds).
18
@Michael
I share your indifference to advertising, but I still don't like the idea of third parties collecting information about me. Advertising is not the limit of their use.
6
Dang it, I guess it’s back to Penthouse Forum and Lady Chatterly’s Lover. “John Thomas says goodnight to Lady Jane, a little droopingly, but with a hopeful heart.”
44
It would be really valuable to get more reporting about Oracle and its role in the on-line privacy in general in the NYTimes.
Also, why isn't Oracle in the headline? It sounds like they're the biggest problem.
Thirdly, which ad agencies do show advertising on those sites if Google doesn't? They would have the strongest incentives to track visitors.
8
Facebook tracks me to my banking site. This really bothers me. Who wants everyone to know about your banking habits. A very scary thing.
14
Google and Facebook NEVER EVER do anything 'unintentionally', least of all collecting (and reselling) data, which is the way they earn money. It would be like Charlie Warzel 'unintentionally' writing an Opinion column - ain't gonna happen.
If you use a decent VPN, and you use your browser's 'anonymous' mode, you lessen the chance of having your info skimmed, and details won't be stored locally on your machine, either. At the very least, your ISP (who ALSO hoovers and sells your info) will have no idea where you're headed, and the sites you visit will not know you IP address, making it far more difficult to add to the data Google and Facebook illegally skim from every site you visit.
And it's illegal because you and I haven't agreed to it. The madness started when the lawyers for the vampires decided that 'opt-out' and not 'opt-in' could be the default because really, who is going to sue Google or Facebook, who can both delay any court date until you die of old age? No one.
27
Here’s an idea- don’t do Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. I don’t. They’ll never have influence on my life.
68
@Jax But aren’t you worried about not having a following and gaining more followers? If you run for office or wish to get your book or Netflix show out there more, don’t you need social media to help you do it?
Does using Tor for sensitive sites not prevent this kind of tracking?
10
@just a thought
Tor will hide your IP address but cookies will go through it. Tor only protects you from your ISP which may be just as guilty of snooping since ALL of your internet traffic goes through it. Your ISP knows the name and IP address of every connection you make.
1
@just a thought: My understanding is that if you use Tor, the gov’t may be interested in watching you.
1
VPN people, use a VPN. Then only one company knows.
9
Privacy aside, I'm going to be laughed at for asking this, but how could there possibly be 22,484 such sites out there? Doesn't one reach the point of diminishing returns (for lack of a better term) pretty quickly in that business?
41
@M. 4% of all websites in the world are dedicated to porn so those 22,484 are just a sliver of all porn sites out there. It all is a matter of demand, and demand for porn is huge.
Moreover, the bulk of porn sites are owned by a few big corporations to which, due to their scale, maintaining those sites is comparatively cheap. An important reason they own those huge numbers of sites is to serve the many, many niches and fetishes as well as their innumerable variations and spin-offs.
Another reason is that porn sites are built to be click generators. Every mouse click on a video or still can kick off many more as a viewer is re-directed to affiliated sites, adverts or pop-ups. This all to immerse the viewer in content.
3
@M.
How many times do you read the same book, mag., NYT story? Watch the same movies or TV shows?
New content and the many various different flavors are the spice of life. 22K is actually pretty small for our billions of sexual beings.
3
As long as it costs nothing to use the internet then the internet providers have to make a buck somehow. I subscribe to quite a few websites because I realize this, but I do know that tracking happens, so you do all you can: wipe history when closing along with cookies set in browser preferences, only accepting cookies from sites you visit, do not permit tracking, and others. Even if you do all of this, you are still being watched while at any website. I'm sure there is a deep profile on me because I've been on the web more than 20 years, but I do what I can to limit it. So far, so good.
8
I deleted my FB account last year and I have not regretted it one bit or one byte.
192
@Len
A complete betrayal of trust. Facebook is a disaster. And, unfortunately, people actually believe they cannot live without it. The company was incredibly savvy in turning something that looked so innocent into something so sinister and undemocratic. I keep waiting for everyone to wake up but year after year it continues to survive.
34
@Len
Unfortunately Google seems to be an even bigger offender. How do we safeguard against the internet search giant and still have access to technology that has become part of everyday life?
8
@Steve
Switch. Try Duck Duck Go or a host of others. Life without "Giggle" is as easy as life without facebook.
4
Facebook isn't tracking me anywhere; I have a separate browser I use for Facebook and nothing else.
On my primary browser, Chrome, Google is definitely tracking me but I've blocked cookies from Facebook and other companies that have no business in my business.
I just wish Google would understand I don't collect pepper mills. I researched and bought one weeks ago but I still see ads for them every day.
48
@Randy
If you are on Facebook with any browser, does not FB have your IP address and can then track you on any browser?
A personal quirk of mine is to buy over the 'phone rather than purchase on line. The vendor may still have a profile of me but it might minimize an avalanche of advertisements.
26
@Randy
Facebook is TOTALLY tracking you. Facebook is tracking me and I never had an account.
27
@Randy. I do the exact same thing, but I clear my cache and cookies every day. It’s a small step but it might help a little bit.
5
Gore Vidal was right about television, it would be a pretty good thing if all advertising were outlawed. This wisdom applies to basically everything. We've advertised ourselves into a real mess.
147
@mary bardmess
Oh my, wake up, it's not the 1970s. The innocence of TV ads seems so warm and cuddly at this point.
7
@mary bardmess
Everything becomes an ad for everything else, and reality disappears behind the images.
@mary bardmess
Without advertising how would we know what to buy? You don't expect Americans to research products and do serious comparison shopping, do you?
Not to mention, all of us slightly flabby guys know that if we drink the right beer then the hot babes will be all over us. Just like the commercials say.
2