Why do porn sites have social media sharing buttons?

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/08/11/why-do-porn-sites-have-social.html

/me puts on tinfoil hat

Those media sharing buttons are known to let those sites track you outside of Facebook, wherever. So they know, likely, what porn you’ve been watching based on the referring URL.

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That’s not how I understand it. As I understand it, the Facebook pixel has to be tied to an action, such as a click-through FROM Facebook. I did not think you could put the Facebook pixel on a random site and it will track activity ON that site.

Webby people, where are you? Weigh in with your understanding, pls.

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The facebook icon has to be loaded on to your computer from somewhere. Say you go to facebook from your IP address at 10:01 and go to a porn site at 10:02. Facebook sees your account loaded the first time then sees their icon loaded at 10:02 with the referrer URL pointing to the porn site. Both point to the same IP address.

That tells facebook that you browse that porn site. They can use that information to tailor the advertising they show to you, or they can sell the information to somebody else who will.

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This is why you have a dedicated porn browser with all the privacy and adblockers on.

Amateurs.

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I just love the idea that a small percentage of viewers must click by accident and share their favorite queening video with their parents.

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They do? Who knew?

<cough>

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This is how I discovered that my former high school crush has an account on a swingers’ website.

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My blood runs cold!
My memory has just been sold
My angel is a centerfold
My angel is a centerfold

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“by accident”

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I’ve seen people with Twitter/Facebook pages where they had porn sharing links - and clearly had done so deliberately, not on accident multiple times. They were assholes, so it was sort of unsurprising, but…

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Same reason blogs have click-bait. Some people will click on anything.

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Why do any sites have social media sharing buttons?

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Any time these sites have social media links with counters there’s always hundreds of shares, too. So clearly someone is clicking them.

Or so I’ve been told.

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I knew, although I only read porn sites for the articles.

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In addition to the icon, the page is also likely pulling in connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js, which is controlled by the facadebook. The facadebook can put whatever code in there which serves their facadebook needs.

Also, if you aren’t wearing a tinfoil hat, typing with one hand activates your webcam and streams to the facadebooklive. :crazy_face:

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You should be able to set your relationship status to “porn.”

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You’ve been Zucked.

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Now I have ti google what “queening” is…

Ok, now google doesn’t know if I’m into chess, cat breeding or facesitting!

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This is actually true. There was a study of the standard Facebook button a few years ago and it sets and read a cookie uniquely identifying the user. If you are logged on to Facebook, it will track and upload any sites you visit to their servers, provided the site uses a standard Facebook button. If you are not logged on, the identifier is still tracked and will sync with your account when you log on. If you are not a Facebook user, it still tracks you under a temporary random i.d. Presumably, Facebook links that old history if you register.

On smartphones (the majority of internet connections happens on smartphones nowadays), each device has a unique i.d. which is used to track your activity across sites and apps for advertising. Facebook uses that (other advertisers as well).

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