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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

#141

Post by Swizec »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #136
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…

I bet you close the bathroom or stall door when you poop though. They're both something many/most people don't like to advertise. Maybe they'd be even less happy to have details of either habit known. You might think that's silly, but it's far from unusual, it's the norm.

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 come? What's the difference?

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

#142

Post by mirimir »

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…

It depends where you are, and what sort of porn you watch. In some places, any porn could mean prison or worse. In more places, it could mean losing a job, divorce, etc.

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

#143

Post by robocat »

jedberg wrote: post #72
Scoundreller wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that why YouTube thumbnails seem to focus on segments with a woman wearing little clothing, even though it’s a small part of the video?

Funny related story! At Reddit we built a tool to create thumbnails for webpages. The algo was basically find the biggest “squareish” image and then remove a row or column of pixels. The row/col was chosen based on which one left the image with the most entropy. We kept doing this until the image was a square. That algo basically cuts off women’s heads and leaves just their cleavage. Obviously we had to adjust it to…

Link from yesterday shows some good examples of the "algo" (seam carving):

https://avikdas.com/2019/07/29/improved-seam-carving-with-fo...

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

#144

Post by Tharkun »

This stuff seems to attract a lot more attention when it's about porn. Who knows, maybe people in general will care more about their privacy once they realize just who knows all about their kinks.

Privacy is important. What you masturbate to really shouldn't be all that important. But if that's what it takes to wake people up, I'm glad the porn industry is leaking all this data.

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

#145

Post by cm2187 »

_b4ut wrote: post #116

Maybe a good moment to commemorate the infamous RedTubeGate from 2013 in Germany: A couple lawyers and fishy business men launch an ad campaign on RedTube. Through that advertisement they collected IP addresses of visitors. Before launching that campaign they allegedly bought the rights for three cheap porn flicks. Now they also claim that they have some miraculous software which allows them to track who has been wat…

Reminds me of a 1990s scam, can't remember if I saw that in a movie or if it did really happen. Some dodgy magazine advertisement for porn videos or something. Customers orders, write a check to a totally innocuous company name. Then the company claims they ran out of stock and issue a refund check, with a "porn xxx sexshop" company name, and of course no customer wants to present that check to their bank or having that name appearing on their bank statement.

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

#146

Post by [deleted] »

Raphmedia wrote: post #90
acheron wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 da…

[deleted]

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

#147

Post by stupandaus »

cm2187 wrote: post #145
_b4ut wrote: post #116

Maybe a good moment to commemorate the infamous RedTubeGate from 2013 in Germany: A couple lawyers and fishy business men launch an ad campaign on RedTube. Through that advertisement they collected IP addresses of visitors. Before launching that campaign they allegedly bought the rights for three cheap porn flicks. Now they also claim that they have some miraculous software which allows them to track who has been wat…

Reminds me of a 1990s scam, can't remember if I saw that in a movie or if it did really happen. Some dodgy magazine advertisement for porn videos or something. Customers orders, write a check to a totally innocuous company name. Then the company claims they ran out of stock and issue a refund check, with a "porn xxx sexshop" company name, and of course no customer wants to present that check to their bank or having t…

This is a line in "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" (Guy Ritchie film)! Was this a scam in the real world as well??

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

#148

Post by ergothus »

Phlarp wrote: post #122
ergothus wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about formal studies, but I've read many an article (insert appropriate "reading for the articles" joke here) talking about how demand for porn influenced early adoption of most new forms of media: printing, broadsheets, photos, different forms of film, and definitely computer video. (Here in Seattle I recall reading about some form of early adult film that shows up notably in local laws...some form of -…

VHS and Betamax was maybe influenced by the adult industry (although sports seems to have mattered as well) Parroting the same about HD/Blu-ray is kind of hilarious though. Porn was deep into the streaming game long before blu-ray hit the scene.

> long before blu-ray hit the scene

When the dust settled, perhaps, but I recall when the issue first came up in 2000 and just about every discussion argued technical merits...and where the porn industry was looking. Anecdotal data, but in 2000 streaming wasn't viable for the majority of users (and still remains not viable for a lot) so that's no reason to discount the impact in that arena.

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

#149

Post by cm2187 »

stupandaus wrote: post #147
cm2187 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of a 1990s scam, can't remember if I saw that in a movie or if it did really happen. Some dodgy magazine advertisement for porn videos or something. Customers orders, write a check to a totally innocuous company name. Then the company claims they ran out of stock and issue a refund check, with a "porn xxx sexshop" company name, and of course no customer wants to present that check to their bank or having t…

This is a line in "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" (Guy Ritchie film)! Was this a scam in the real world as well??

I think that's where I must have heard it then. Though I am sure it must be inspired from a real scam, like most books/scenarios.

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

#150

Post by mirimir »

meruru wrote: post #6

The hentai sites I tend to use are pretty good in this regard I think. Most of them even work with no JS. E.g. https://danbooru.donmai.us https://e-hentai.org Edit: I tried visiting them without adblock and I'm actually surprised they didn't even have ads.

Those are good sites. But cartoon porn with underage characters is illegal in some countries. And marginally so in the US, depending on attitude of the prosecutor. Also, I've come across some cartoon porn sites that are too disturbing to even risk describing here. Violence per se isn't so illegal, but underage sex + violence may well be.
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