Do you know that once upon a time Google launches a feature called incognito mode? One of the reasons Google launches the feature is to not track you when you are browsing online. However, according to a recent study, tech giants such as Facebook, Google, and Oracle might be tracking each time you visit adult sites. This happens even if you set your browser to private or incognito mode.
From the study, the authors analyze more than 22,484 adult sites and find that almost 93% of user data has been leaked to third parties. The author says that Google has a tracker on 74% of the adult sites in the world. Other than, that the world most famous social network has trackers on 10% of porn sites. Compared to Oracle, Facebook has lower trackers because Oracle has trackers on 24% of the porn sites. You can read their research paper for more information on their analysis.
Upon asking Google about this, one of the Google spokeswomen told that it is true Google is tracking its users when they surf to porn sites. However, Google is not using that information to build its advertising profiles.
Here is a statement from Google spokeswoman:
We don’t allow Google Ads on websites with adult content and we prohibit personalised advertising and advertising profiles based on a user’s sexual interests or related activities online. Additionally, tags for our ad services are never allowed to transmit personally identifiable information,
Even Facebook also gives its statement regarding this matter which it says similar to Google. At this moment, only Oracle has not responded to the New York Times regarding its tracking on porn sites.
It damages public figure reputation
Some of you might take it easily after reading Google’s statement, but the authors of the study say that this type of data which is being collected by Facebook and Google is very dangerous. This is because if a hacker one day hacks Facebook and Google, they can use this data against anyone. Imagine with this data a person can damage the reputation of a public figure.
Moreover, there is also a security concern raised by the authors where the hackers have stolen email addresses, passwords, usernames, and credit card information previously. As for now, they didn’t reveal the exact number of data being leaked to hackers.
In conclusion, the internet is not safe anymore including browsers. Next time, you should beware on what could happen when you browse porn sites through any private browser or Google’s incognito mode. All your data is being stored somewhere inside a server at Facebook and Google data farm.
