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Tracking Sex: Implications of widespread data leakage and tracking on porn sites

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Re: Tracking Sex: Implications of widespread data leakage and tracking on porn sites

#81
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VPN protection from site-level tracking is basically nonexistent. Browser fingerprinting is widespread and bypasses anything a VPN might offer. VPN is effective against network-level issues, not against browser-based tracking - it's a different level in the stack.

Shouldn't browsers enable anti-fingerprinting (fingerprint spoofing) when you go incognito?

incognito was designed for when sharing a browser with another user, but does nothing on the remote end to keep you private.

ad nauseum actively poisons the dataset by clicking on every link it is presented. this can be useful when it is combined with other techniques. https://web.archive.org/web/20180714043311/https://iotdarwin...

(sadly) do-not-track also doesn't work - it makes you stick out even more when activating it. best is to try to blend in with aggressive hardware compartmentalization. there are no solutions that can easily be recommended to somebody less tech-savvy which would protect them from bad actors (and GDPR or not - there will always be plenty of them).

Re: Tracking Sex: Implications of widespread data leakage and tracking on porn sites

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but millennials have no power, there's the potential that what they've done (while being tracked and recorded every moment of their lives) could be used to blacklist the entire generation by zombie boomers and their xer children. They've already come of age during a ruined economy, this could just be another strike. Xers will live long enough that they could skip most of the millennials in favor of their kid…

> but millennials have no power Millennials are up to 38 years old in 2019.

Nobody born in 1982 has anything in common with someone born in the 90s. If you want to make “millennial” that expansive, then it loses all meaning.

Re: Tracking Sex: Implications of widespread data leakage and tracking on porn sites

#83
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are still several bits of data, like plugin support, touch support, platform, language, screen size, and timezone, that have to be actively manipulated if you want to reduce the likelihood of unique tracking.

are there any browsers that obscure these properties to sites?

The TOR browser if probably your best bet for this, even if you don't use TOR to browse.

Re: Tracking Sex: Implications of widespread data leakage and tracking on porn sites

#84

I've assumed (without evidence, only deduction) since the 90s that every pornographic thing anyone has ever looked at has been recorded for future blackmail use against social rebellions.

"Let me get this straight, you think that your client, one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante, who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands, and your plan is to blackmail this person?"

This is about how it would end for the wanna-be blackmailers. They would get doxxed, then murdered.

Re: Tracking Sex: Implications of widespread data leakage and tracking on porn sites

#85
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are still several bits of data, like plugin support, touch support, platform, language, screen size, and timezone, that have to be actively manipulated if you want to reduce the likelihood of unique tracking.

are there any browsers that obscure these properties to sites?

To do this well, you have to take special care with how exactly you obscure them. If your browser refuses to report those values, or sends junk values, then you might actually make the problem worse. It's the internet version of this: https://xkcd.com/1105/

Re: Tracking Sex: Implications of widespread data leakage and tracking on porn sites

#86
post #49
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve met their head of data science. They’re doing all that stuff and have been for many years. Porn has always been leaders in technology. They were the first to embrace home video and can arguably be credited for VHS winning over BetaMax despite being inferior, because it was cheaper and all the porn was VHS only.

> Porn has always been leaders in technology. This is typically repeated but I question if there is actual proof of it rather than one of those '8 glasses of water a day' which just keeps getting passed along or some kind of plausible and believable anecdote.

If people had the star trek holodeck around today what would one of its primary uses be

Re: Tracking Sex: Implications of widespread data leakage and tracking on porn sites

#87

I've assumed (without evidence, only deduction) since the 90s that every pornographic thing anyone has ever looked at has been recorded for future blackmail use against social rebellions.

You reach a point where if nearly everyone is blackmail-able for the same thing, that it stops becoming effective. If everyone is cheating on their spouse, then who is anyone to judge?

> You reach a point where if nearly everyone is blackmail-able for the same thing, that it stops becoming effective.

That's not true, because it requires a further massive step (that is unlikely to occur): all people must be similarly revealed to be doing the thing in question.

You'd have to know that everyone is cheating on their spouse; everyone would have to have max knowledge / transparency. Until then, the ones that get revealed will get judged by those not yet revealed. In my observation, people tend to be very comfortable with being a hypocrite, right up to the point where they're burned by it.

And further, if there's even a small detail that is different, the crowd will use that detail as the point of differentiation to say that they're not as bad as some other person.

If you have 100 people all surfing the same porn, and only one of them gets publicly revealed for the behavior, most of the remaining 99 people - assuming individual separation - will pretend they're not doing the same thing. They'll ostracize or harshly judge the person that got revealed publicly, pretend they're not doing the same thing, and go on doing the same thing in private. This behavior seems to repeat essentially non-stop among people socially; you see it in the news, with politicians or celebrities, with scandals, in various group behavior, among friends & family, et al.

Re: Tracking Sex: Implications of widespread data leakage and tracking on porn sites

#88

Mindgeek runs all of the biggest porn sites, and also runs its own ad network. Since the biggest of those sites are their "tube" sites, they run into the same issues as youtube when it comes to tracking individual tastes. Since the product is porn, which is very easily classifiable with a list of the physical features of actors (with maybe a few behavioral distinctions), the actors in the video, how they are matched…

> Moreover, it would be financially beneficial, because it'd be easy to maximize engagement with that stuff and a past record of engagement time

Maybe they don't recommend the best video for you (i.e. the one you'll like the most) but one that is relatively good fit for your taste, without being too good, so that you spend more time on the site. If you know what I mean.

Re: Tracking Sex: Implications of widespread data leakage and tracking on porn sites

#89

I've assumed (without evidence, only deduction) since the 90s that every pornographic thing anyone has ever looked at has been recorded for future blackmail use against social rebellions.

It might be my age demographic but everyone I know is very open with their choices of pornography and I have the link to several of my friend's favorite lists and playlists. There are also shared accounts of paid websites going around and we can see the "recently watched" lists. There shouldn't be any shame to pornography unless you are consuming illegal content. Unless you are a content creator and wish to keep your…

I find this hard to believe. Are you saying you have friends that sign up on porn sites with their real names? At which age are we talking about?

I would wager you wouldn't talk casually about it to any prospective girlfriends, assuming you guys have any...

Re: Tracking Sex: Implications of widespread data leakage and tracking on porn sites

#90
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but millennials have no power Millennials are up to 38 years old in 2019.

Nobody born in 1982 has anything in common with someone born in the 90s. If you want to make “millennial” that expansive, then it loses all meaning.

I am born in 1991 and my brother in 1981. We share the same values and were raised much the same way in a very similar environment.

At work, my team is composed mostly of individuals born in the 80's and we are only a handful of 90's. We share the same workplace attitudes.

The person I am dating was born in 1985. We see the world in a very similar way and share a lot of the same hobbies.

I did not come up with the date range. Look anywhere and that's what you will see.

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