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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

#211

Post by FabHK »

mastre_ wrote: post #177
FabHK wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, according to panopticlick, my Chrome provides about 70 bits of identifying information. There are about 2^33 people. I don't feel incognito.

70 bits? That's a ton. I'm at: 17.62 Chrome 75.0.x normal (non-incognito) 16.62 Chrome 75.0.x incognito 15.62 FF 68.0.1 (Private doesn't seem to make a diff, I get the same score) Seems like in Chrome, at least, the most offending (most unique ) "characteristic" is HTTP_ACCEPT Headers , which looks something like text/html, */*; q=0.01 gzip, deflate, br en-US,en;q=0.9,fr-FR;q=0.8,f... If there is a good way to contro…

FWIW, I've not taken the number quoted by the website ("at least x bits", which appears to be the maximum of the per-characteristic numbers, which sort of assumes that the characteristics are fully dependent (such that knowing further characteristics does not tell you anything beyond that one maximally informative characteristic)), but the sum of the per-characteristic numbers (which sort of makes the opposite assumption that the characteristics are fully independent, and knowing all the other characteristics does not reduce the information added by any one characteristic).

So, the true number is somewhere in-between.

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

#212

Post by your-nanny »

your-nanny wrote: post #186
pessimizer wrote: post #17

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…

YouTube has been criticized for it's recommender system tending to push viewers to more and more extreme content. I think the porn tube industry no different.

so somebody here thinks pornhub's recommendation system doesn't also encourage the viewing of more and more extreme content? if so, say so, don't be lazy.

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

#213

Post by kalleboo »

olyjohn wrote: post #120
Karunamon wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something I've heard brought up regarding the length is that early Betamax couldn't tape the average sports game, while early VHS could. I'd imagine that was a big selling point.

The early Betamax recorders didn't have a timer on them. Plus the tapes were super short. So if you had a show at 3pm you wanted to tape, you had to be there at 3pm to push the record button, then be stuck with only 90 minutes of recorded content.

The first Betamax recorder sold in the US was the LV-1901 which included a 24 hour timer.

The first standalone Betamax VCR was the SL-7200 on which the timer was a $45 optional add-on.

Also at the time people were already buying wall socket timers for their reel-to-reel tape decks to record the radio, these would also work with a Betamax deck. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbNgbtZJAcU

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

#214

Post by somerandomness »

meruru wrote: post #151
Swizec wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but I still bring my personal tracking device to the bathroom. How else am I supposed to read memes? Which brings us to an interesting point. We all want immediate privacy right? Close the door when watching porn, make sure your webcam isn't turned on, close the bathroom when pooping etc. But having a VPN when watching porn or banning phones from the restroom, that's not something many (most?) people do. How com…

The main difference between those things is that one is easy to understand and the other is not.

Also vpn typically costs money

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

#215

Post by Raphmedia »

asymmetric wrote: post #203
Raphmedia wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make your own social circle and only you can choose who you spend time with. If you are someone open about sexuality, then chances are that you will surround yourself with people who find this natural. I absolutely reject the normalization of puritan values you are pushing. There is nothing abnormal and unusual at all about being learned about human sexuality and discussing the subject with friends. Yes, it can b…

The point is that people should have the choice to share however much they want of their sexual life with the rest of the world. It shouldn’t be a company/government that surreptitiously gathers information about you. I understand the point you’re trying to make, but your argument sounds dangerously close to “why do you need privacy if you have nothing to hide?”

> I understand the point you’re trying to make, but your argument sounds dangerously close to “why do you need privacy if you have nothing to hide?”

We absolutely need privacy even with nothing to hide. My point is that pornography is not any more of an important issue than anything else. It simply sells more clicks and make people take more when news are reporting on it.

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

#216

Post by Lio »

Swizec wrote: post #133
mirimir wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't imagine visiting port sites without using at least a VPN. And without using an ~anonymous persona, and ~anonymous payment methods. And full-disk encryption. And as I recall, I never did. But people obviously do. And get nailed by stuff like RedTubeGate, and the Ashley Madison leak. It's mind-boggling. Edit: OK, so I get the "I love my porn, and you closed-minded idiots can just sod off". That's easy to say, w…

I watch porn. Like everybody else on the planet. Why hide something so mundane? It’s like pretending you don’t poop. We all know you poop. You’re human. Reminds me of a failed study I read about. Researchers wanted to look into the effects of porn and couldn’t find a big enough control group. There simply aren’t enough people who don’t watch porn to make the study viable. PS: in terms of malware it’s religious sites…

Yep hard to believe now but it never used to be a taboo subject.

Office wanking used to be an everyday, normal part of the working week. It was the big change in the 1990s after they banned office smoking.

As recorded by this fly on the wall documentary series from the UK, “Big Train”:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VKH9ECC_Qa4

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

#217

Post by SmirkingRevenge »

anaphor wrote: post #15
johnedwards wrote: post #12

Some friends noted that this had been up on HN for three hours with no comments. So I decided to read the paper and note some highlights. > What Jack does not know is that incognito mode only ensures his browsing history is not stored on his computer. Œe sites he visits, as well as any third-party trackers, may observe and record his online actions. > ‘30% of all the data transferred across the internet is porn,’ wit…

The paper is wrong when it says incognito mode only ensures your browser history is not stored. It also ensures that any session cookies are not shared between private mode / regular mode. Obviously that doesn't rule out other browser fingerprinting methods of course (see panopticlick, evercookies, etc) Edit: It seems like they are saying you can be tracked within incognito mode sessions? That seems pretty obvious. I…

I agree its not quite as concerning if your habits are only coalesced in an anonymous profile, but...

The matching engines will keep matching on. You can't ever slip up, even once.

If you leak any sort of signal, its all for naught - and the matching engines may be able to use that signal to link that anonymous collection of habits back to a real resolved identity.

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

#218

Post by mirimir »

meruru wrote: post #195
mirimir wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's actually the most disturbing aspect. They're absolutely cruel and disgusting, and yet extremely sexual. And it's been very hard to forget about them. Some old-school shock sites were a little like that. Lemon party, for example, is a disturbing image, for an old man. And that girls/cups one. But even those are just funny, compared to what I'm talking about. If you email me, or PM me on Keybase, I'll share the…

Just drop the name and I'll find it on sad pan- oh. Being deep into this fandom, I'm skeptical you can find anything that will surprise me, but I'll shoot you an email anyway.

Done.

And on reflection, I get that what I'm talking about isn't all that uncommon. Just torture, hanging, decapitation, cannibalism, etc. Some of my favorite fiction features all of that. Burroughs, Abercrombie, Morgan, Stover, and lots of older stuff.

But still, mixing that with S&M disturbs me.

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

#219

Post by mirimir »

Lio wrote: post #216
Swizec wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watch porn. Like everybody else on the planet. Why hide something so mundane? It’s like pretending you don’t poop. We all know you poop. You’re human. Reminds me of a failed study I read about. Researchers wanted to look into the effects of porn and couldn’t find a big enough control group. There simply aren’t enough people who don’t watch porn to make the study viable. PS: in terms of malware it’s religious sites…

Yep hard to believe now but it never used to be a taboo subject. Office wanking used to be an everyday, normal part of the working week. It was the big change in the 1990s after they banned office smoking. As recorded by this fly on the wall documentary series from the UK, “Big Train”: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VKH9ECC_Qa4

Huh? Really, "office wanking"? I don't recall anywhere that was OK. Although I won't claim that I never did it. Or office (in my case, lab) sex, either. But always at night, when very few were working.

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

#220

Post by stallmanifold »

FabHK wrote: post #121
fragsworth wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to panopticlick, Chrome is 100% secure in incognito mode.

Hmm, according to panopticlick, my Chrome provides about 70 bits of identifying information. There are about 2^33 people. I don't feel incognito.

In my experience the biggest entropy generator with browser fingerprinting in system fonts. I ran Panopticlick against both my Firefox browser instance (running Ghostery, uBlock Origin, and Privacy Badger) against a Chromium instance running no plugins and both cases yielded 17 bits from browser fingerprinting. It makes me curious whether system fonts are a major source of privacy leakage.
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