Privacy is an illusion, especially in an economy where "information" is the most valuable resource. As a result, powerful entities and companies are motivated to collect and analyze as much data and personal information as they can about your activity online. Shopping for jeans on H&M's website? You will now get eerily personalized ads for the same on different websites that you visit, across your devices. But wait, it gets even creepier.

Google, Facebook, Amazon, and other data collecting companies, want to crawl into our heads and understand us better by tracking our search queries and online movements, including what we search on pornography websites. Surprised? We were too when we discovered that if you go on an adult entertainment website that has a Facebook plug-in button - it's likely you're being tracked.

According to their data policy, Facebook states: "We collect information when you visit or use third-party websites and apps that use our services (like when they offer our Like button or Facebook login or use our measurement and advertising services).

"This includes information about the websites and apps you visit, your use of our Services on those websites and apps, as well as information the developer or publisher of the app or website provides to you or us." However, this wasn't the case in the past.

Why does Facebook want to track your online activity?

Nine years ago, the social media giant had assured its users that the “like” and “share” Facebook widgets on websites wouldn’t be used to track them.

In 2011, Facebook said, “No information we receive when you see social plugins are used to target ads; we delete this information within 90 days, and we never sell your information.”

In other words, they said they only used the information to target you if you actually clicked on one of its off-site Like buttons. But as "data and information" became the cornerstone of profitability, the company changed its mind and decided to use it's Like, Share, and log in with Facebook widgets to keep an eye on what you're up to.

Facebook has been known to manipulate content to please powerful entities such as the covert Facebook and BJP alliance uncovered by the WSJ. It’s no surprise that Facebook is monitoring and invading our privacy for the benefit of big advertisers’ profit. To prevent outrage or even suspicion, Facebook made the tracking feature appear more like a favour they were bestowing on Facebook users than a privacy concern.

In a 2016 blog post called “Bringing people better ads", Facebook explained, their users found general ads "annoying, distracting, or misleading" and so they decided to personalize the ad experience to woo the user. The iffy part about this feature is the huge breach of one’s privacy, especially during their most private browsing sessions.

Is it safe to search for porn whilst being logged into Facebook?

As disturbing it is to admit, it's true - Facebook and Google are privy to your pornography preferences. A 2019 joint study from Microsoft, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Pennsylvania found that Google and Oracle cloud are secretly tracking your adult website browsing habits. Researchers investigated 22,484 sex sites using a handy tool called webXray, which exposed tracking tools siphoning data back to third parties.

The study authors said, “Our results indicate tracking is endemic on pornography websites: 93% of pages leak user data to a third-party,” and "Revelations about such data represent specific threats to personal safety and autonomy in any society that polices gender and sexuality.”

Researchers discovered that Google and its various outlets had trackers on 74% of the web’s top adult websites, Oracle had 24%, and Facebook 10%.

If you think you can cleverly manoeuvre your way around this by switching to incognito mode, think again. When browsing on an incognito window, the data from your self-pleasure sessions don’t get stored but third-party websites can still extract your data.

Facebook knows what you’re looking for

To some extent, we're comfortable with Facebook knowing our interests through our Facebook account or Facebook widgets on other websites. For example, if you spend time browsing for upcoming local concerts and Facebook incorporates this information into its personal data profile of you so that in the future it can show you more ads for gigs and concerts in the city, it isn't a big deal. You will probably be indifferent to the fact that Facebook knows you enjoy the art of theatre.

However, nobody wants Facebook to peep into the adult content they’re secretly watching. You might think there’s nothing you can do or give up watching porn altogether but there is a way to opt-out of being profiled by giant tech companies.

How to watch porn safely?

You can log out of Facebook and Google to prevent personalized web tracking. There are apps such as DoNotTrackMe that can limit the function of web trackers and of course, you can protect your privacy with a good Virtual Private Network (VPN) - just make sure you aren't signed into Google or Facebook.

A blog post from Mr. Stephen Deadman, Facebook’s chief deputy global privacy officer also offers a way out. He wrote in the post, "Last year, we introduced online interest-based advertising – ads based on people's use of other websites and apps."

"Today, we're introducing an additional way for people to turn off this kind of advertising from the ad settings page right on Facebook," he continues. So, Facebook will still know if you were on a porn website, it just won’t use that information to serve you ads.