Alessandro Polidoro, a digital rights activist, is leading a lawsuit against Pornhub on behalf of the collective #StopDataPorn. The lawsuit alleges that Pornhub fails to obtain user consent for tracking, a requirement under Europe’s privacy laws. Unlike other sites that provide options to accept, reject, or customize cookies, Pornhub only provides an “OK” button, with no option to prevent tracking.
The lawsuit also criticizes Pornhub’s lack of transparency regarding data sharing with its parent company, MindGeek. The group alleges that there is little clarity about what data is shared and how it is used. Additionally, the lawsuit claims that Pornhub assigns sexual preferences to users without their knowledge, based on the videos they watch.
Tools like Blacklight and Privacy Badger reveal that Pornhub’s data is transmitted to Google and TrafficJunky, MindGeek’s advertising platform. Pornhub also uses tracking technology capable of storing IDs of the videos users watch, creating a parallel search history on the user’s device. MindGeek has declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.
The #StopDataPorn group has also filed complaints in Italy and Cyprus. The complaints aim to highlight the amount of data porn websites collect and how they handle this information. Research shows that most porn websites leak data to third parties and use tracking cookies from outside companies. Experts suggest using privacy browsers or privacy-enhancing browser extensions to limit data collection and tracking.