'These third-parties may even infer Jack’s sexual interests from the URLs of the sites he accesses. 'The websites visits, as well as any third-party trackers, may observe and record his online actions,' explains the paper.

To illustrate this, the study authors lay out what for many is an all too familiar scenario. In other words, your specific - and perhaps extremely private kinks - stand a pretty good chance of becoming not so private. 'Our content analysis of the sample’s domains indicated 44.97% of them expose or suggest a specific gender/sexual identity or interest likely to be linked to the user,' continues the study. The study, conducted by researchers hailing from Microsoft, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Pennsylvania, found a significant majority of pornography websites - 93 percent of the 22,484 analyzed - 'leak user data to a third party.'Īnd it gets worse. Importantly, Google warns users, when using Incognito mode ' activity isn’t hidden from websites you visit, your employer or school, or your internet service provider.' Many people believe it renders their online browsing private, when in reality it just prevents Chrome from ' your browsing history, cookies and site data, or information entered in forms.' This latter point highlights broad confusion among the general public about what the Google Chrome feature actually does. And no, the study authors take pains to insist, Google's Incognito mode won't keep your secrets. So concludes a not-so-surprising study, which determined that online pornography sites are loaded with various trackers that leak private details about their users to third parties.

They still know what kind of porn you're watching. Privacy Please is an ongoing series exploring the ways privacy is violated in the modern world, and what can be done about it.

Tor links for forbidden websites