On The Internet, Porn Watches You – And Is Sued For It

Painfully unfunny Russian jokes aside, it’s also true – porn sharing site YouPorn is now under fire for having pulled a minor Google by sniffing users’ browser history.

For those of you out of the loop, browser sniffing is not a website’s scanning of your internet activities for scent. A website, as you may have noticed, generally keeps track of links you’ve clicked by assigning them a ‘clicked’ or ‘have not clicked’ colour – typically purple for yes, blue for no. Browser sniffing works, essentially, by a website’s asking your browser which colour link to display. If your browser answers ‘purple’, that website now knows where you’ve been. Spooky.

The accusers, Californians David Pitner and Jared Reagan, are fingering (so to speak) YouPorn for “intentionally accessing plaintiffs’ computers… without authorization,” and are looking for class-action status, as well as payment for damages. Exactly what kind of damage is unknown. The knowledge that the porn knows you’re looking at it, perhaps?

Firefox 4 will apparently snuff out sniffing, though, so… I guess we all just swear off porn until then? Yeah, sure we will.