Tracking sex: The implications of widespread sexual data leakage and tracking on porn websites

Abstract

This article explores tracking and privacy risks on pornography websites. Our analysis of 22,484 pornography websites indicated that 93% leak user data to a third-party. Tracking on these sites is highly concentrated by a handful of major companies, which we identify. We successfully extracted privacy policies for 3856 sites, 17% of the total. The policies were written such that one might need a 2-year college education to understand them. Our content analysis of the sample’s domains indicated 44.97% of them expose or suggest a specific gender/sexual identity or interest likely to be linked to the user. We identify three core implications of the quantitative results: (1) the unique/elevated risks of porn data leakage versus other types of data, (2) the particular risks/impact for “vulnerable” populations, and (3) the complications of providing consent for porn site users and the need for affirmative consent in these online sexual interactions.