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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

#201

Post by throwthisaway02 »

jedberg wrote: post #35
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…

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.

Like many data scientists, s/he is not doing a good job, IMO, because they get too caught up in super-advanced tech while forgetting to cover the basics. Case in point: I've visited PornHub often, yet I have no idea how much a paid subscription costs, or what the benefits are (no ads? longer scenes? content that isn't available to non-subscribers?). I must create a free account before any pricing is revealed. I've never even done that -- don't know the benefit. OK, that's a marketing decision, not data science, you say. But if they are doing any of the fingerprinting you claim, then maybe on the 10th visit without registering, perhaps they can make things a bit more transparent? If not the 10th, the 100th? At some point, d.s. needs to implement some magic to get users like me to convert. At least to give a sales pitch. I don't hide, I use an incognito tab but no VPN. 99% of my visits originate from a Bing search, so that's a big hint to the d.s. team that I'm not loyal to the site, that they need to be more aggressive in selling me on PH vs their competitors. It also tells them exactly what I searched for, yet I haven't noticed that PH recommendations getting better as a result of that info. If you've got users visiting your site for years without so much as registering, at some point the data scientists and all the fancy tech needs to answer for that.

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

#202

Post by propogandist »

brettz wrote: post #197
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…

No we aren't doing that. Ads are contextual on TrafficJunky/Pornhub. Too few people actually making accounts and purchases compared to the billions browsing anonymously.

what's the % of users you see using ad-blockers?

separately, has there been any consideration given to googleanalytics (+google fonts) usage on your properties, and Google's ability to track visitors across your sites and the web?

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

#203

Post by asymmetric »

Raphmedia wrote: post #157
hnaccy wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be hurtful because it would negatively impact your social relations since it's unusual to be so open and there are a number of legal sexual interests that many find distasteful or even revolting.

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?”

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

#204

Post by brettz »

propogandist wrote: post #202
brettz wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No we aren't doing that. Ads are contextual on TrafficJunky/Pornhub. Too few people actually making accounts and purchases compared to the billions browsing anonymously.

what's the % of users you see using ad-blockers? separately, has there been any consideration given to googleanalytics (+google fonts) usage on your properties, and Google's ability to track visitors across your sites and the web?

Small since ~80% of our traffic is mobile and we also serve static ads to most adblock users on desktop.

Google Analytics is the only analytics product that can support the data we need processed at a reasonable price. We do use their IP anonymization by default and it's pretty easy to opt-out of GA tracking.

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

#205

Post by stordoff »

namanyayg wrote: post #155
the8472 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I see it everywhere, not just on reaction videos. I have seen them in in-store advertising in supermarkets. > I wonder what the next steps are. More digital augmentation awaits? Virtual/retouched streaming personas. It's already a thing in japan and among furries.

What software is being used to create virtual personas? Am I right in understanding that this work isn't being done by Western companies?

I don't think it's 100% the same thing (VRM appears to be full body, not just face), but FaceRig[1] is a similar concept made by a Romanian studio.

[1] https://facerig.com/

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

#206

Post by stordoff »

codesushi42 wrote: post #100
Raphmedia wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course not, that's usernames I'm talking about. We'd say "Oh, go log in as 'CoolUser69'. The password is 'hunter2'. We are sharing this account together, chip in a few bucks a month if you can" or "oh, I have a curated playlist of [XYZ category]. Look up 'CoolUser69' on [KinkySite.xxx]". The age range is 26-31 years. Both males and females. Anything from owners of small web development agencies to university stude…

Yes, but you may be talking about your social circle. I am skeptical that casually sharing your porn habits is going to be seen as acceptable and normal in the eyes of most of your peers. I'm a few years from the age range you mentioned, and I can't say I have seen the same level of openness. Not even close.

I'm in that age range (29), and I've never seen that (UK). It's not out of shame, or even any particular secrecy - it just doesn't come up, and would feel a little weird to bring up.

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

#207

Post by _emacsomancer_ »

_gtly wrote: post #42
gruez wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>so you would need to have fingerprint resistant browser profile easy. use firefox, open about:config, and set privacy.resistFingerprinting => true.

Easy to enable, but in practice not much help yet: For me, at least, I enabled resistFingerprinting and tested on https://panopticlick.eff.org . A unique fingerprint was still present. Test it yourself.

I don't fully understand panopticlick results. My machines always get uniquely identified by screen size (which I sort of understand, but find doubtful) and fonts installed. The latter I find very confusing since it often lists a set of garden variety Windows fonts, which I don't even have installed on my machine.

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

#208

Post by Nyandalized »

pyuser583 wrote: post #200
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…

Mindgeek uses PHP. I’m not sure how that meshes with “very skilled technologists.” BTW, I’m a hardcore Python snob who will eventually watch the world dissolve into an oblivion of Golang, Elixir, and Scala.

You can write poor code in any language. Language itself has very little other meaning than how well it does it's job in the given context. PHP is great for fast development, has a lot of developers available, and comes with great tooling for the web.

Traditional downsides like poor threading and overall performance were/are overshadowed in that most webcalls are always I/O bound. PHP7 has made great strides on this though, especially on memory usage.

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

#209

Post by krageon »

pessimizer wrote: post #175
9quuujeioq wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [porn] 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 ("how" doing a lot of heavy lifting here) and possibly director, producer, and age of content, it would be easy for them to have a very specific dossier on all users. Moreover, it would be financially beneficial, because it'd be easy to maximize…

I've never really gone to tube sites (I just know how much business they do), but I can't believe it's that bad. I'd also think it would be cheap enough computationally, and iafd.com has pretty much compiled and indexed everything already. Maybe there's an opening for someone who can do it cheaply, or they've discovered that it's not worth it?

From what I've heard from people peripherally involved in the space (and from what I've observed in practice, though that might be less useful) the big platforms definitely don't do only this.

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

#210

Post by baud147258 »

FabHK wrote: post #23
anaphor wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> between private mode / regular mode Or within private mode. (I use private mode by default, and anytime I open a new tab, I need to log into HN again).

That's not the case for Chrome, cookies are shared by all the tabs.
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