We have received written confirmation from representatives of the Cypriot DPA that the #StopDataPorn complaint filed there in August 2022 has now been integrated into a maxi-investigation targeting the porn tech-giant. The headquarters of Aylo in Cyprus have been visited by the Commissioner, and the final decision on the trial is now taking shape. The email exchange between the Cypriot DPA and our lawyers is enclosed below, redacted to safeguard anonymity.

According to our lawyers in Cyprus, from the law firm Emilianides Katsaros LLC:

“It is a very positive development to see our complaint being examined as part of the wider official investigation conducted by the Office of the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection. This signifies that what has been put forward via our complaint will be taken into account along with any outcomes of her Office’s investigation, thus ensuring a holistic address to the data protection malpractice of Pornhub ”

• Mr. Sotiris Pafitis, lawyer at EK LLC.

The Cypriot Parliament has also recently scheduled a hearing of one of its parliamentary committee to investigate Cyprus’ rampant porn industry. This new inquiry will target Pornhub, along with other porn giants like XHamster, Stripchat, Faphouse, and Virtual Taboo, based on the island.

Meanwhile, the DPA in Italy is now transmitting to the Cypriot Commissioner the file of the second #StopDataPorn complaint submitted there in June 2023, containing the results of the parallel investigation conducted by the Garante on behalf of our claimant. This is the result of our motion to escalate the entire European strategic litigation before the DPA in Cyprus, as this is the lead authority for Aylo’s GDPR compliance.

Besides its problems with GDPR, the tech-giant Aylo in the European Union is also facing challenges with compliance to the new Digital Services Act (DSA), whose obligations for Very Large Online Platforms are now fully enforceable for Pornhub since April 21st. These obligations include submission of risk assessment reports, mitigation measures to address systemic risks linked to the platform scale, transparency obligations related to advertisers and content moderation on the website, and providing access to data for researchers.

We welcome this renewed collaboration among European DPAs and are looking forward to the soon-to-be-delivered final decision on Pornhub’s violations of data protection law.

#StopDataPorn is a collective initiative calling on users and authorities to take immediate action and address the exploitative practices of porn platforms. This users’ data violation is not the sole abuse done by Pornhub, who is already involved in scandals about monetizing from sexual assault videos and letting children access its adult material.

Contact

📬 [email protected] 📬

The post Walls are closing in on Pornhub and its GDPR violations appeared first on #StopDataPorn.

As tension is rising before the Italian DPA, all eyes are now on Cyprus where the legal entity responsible for Pornhub is located. In Cyprus, the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection received our “twin-complaint” already in August 2022 but the investigations there are still ongoing and the trial has not started yet. According to a recent investigation conducted by Le Monde, Cyprus has consolidated its position of high-tech hub for the porn industry and there is growing concerns that the Cypriot DPA will be too lenient with Aylo not to jeopardize the presence of its wealth on the island. If the Cypriot DPA will not respond to our lawsuits in due time, we will have no alternatives but to file a complaint against its inaction.

Meanwhile, Pornhub is already running for cover and decided to change its cookie banner, privacy policy and terms of services. All the changes were made in great silence and, when the tech-giant was shamed by us because the new cookie banner was not big enough, they changed it again. These are clearly troubled times for Pornhub, who in the past month lost two positions among the most visited websites of the world and is now ranking 14th on SimilarWeb.

And GDPR is not the sole European regulation to create problems to Aylo and its empire. Few weeks ago a coalition of digital rights activists, sex workers, gender-based violence survivors and sextech builders has leveraged the new Digital Services Act (DSA) to pressure the European Commission into including major porn platforms in the list of Very Large Online Platforms. If successful, this VLOPs designation will force platforms like Pornhub and Youporn (both owned by Aylo) to undergo strict due-diligence and allow independent auditing by vetted researchers.

In this context, the next move of the Cypriot DPA is set to decide the future of Pornhub’s data business model and, probably, the future of the whole Aylo: what will Cyprus do?

#StopDataPorn is a collective initiative calling on users and authorities to take immediate action and address the exploitative practices of porn platforms. This users’ data violation is not the sole abuse done by Pornhub, who is already involved in scandals about monetizing from sexual assault videos and letting children access its adult material.

Contact

📬 [email protected] 📬

The post All eyes on Cyprus, while Italian DPA has received first defense statement from Pornhub appeared first on #StopDataPorn.

One month ago #StopDataPorn has unveiled the severity of users’ data malpractice happening on Pornhub and the tech giant is now running for cover in secret. Last week we had to shame them again for the useless cookie banner they implemented trying to clean up their privacy mess. Now, only one week after this change on the platform in response to our accusations, Mindgeek is making one more attempt to sweep this crisis under the rug and brainwash everyone.

Here is what is going on:

• Pornhub changed its cookie banner again and in complete silence, therefore admitting that the platform was trying to fool the users with a useless banner at first. We had to call out this fake “solution” and it is starting to look like they are actually in bad faith. Also, the banner has not been implemented on a global scale, in fact you cannot see it connecting from Switzerland or the US. If they truly believed in privacy and data autonomy (as they claim in the banner), then they shouldn’t make geographical discrimination.
• Pornhub is still absolutely not compliant with GDPR because in its privacy policy the legal basis for content personalization and profiling is still “legitimate interest” and not “consent”. And the consent must be reinforced pursuant to art.9 GDPR because they are processing sensitive data related to sexual preferences of users! Also, the date indicated on the last version of the privacy Policy (13th of July) is false, considering how internet archiving tools show that the site was displaying its previous policy (dated 14th of April 2022) as recently as last 21st of July 2023.
• Mindgeek refuses to make public comments on their data protection crisis and yet they are clearly aware of all the malpractice that we are shaming them for. Are they exploiting our campaign for free consultancy on GDPR? What else are they hiding behind their silence? Why are they not communicating on their privacy crisis? At this point we demand access to the data Mindgeek has, in a procedure similar to what art. 40 of the Digital Services Act prescribes, so that we will be able to monitor their compliance.
• Some non-technical cookies are still deployed before consent is given and even if it is denied. This is the case of cookies from hubt.pornhub.com which is a subdomain of pornhub.com connected to a service offered by Mindgeek that was supposedly discontinued in 2019. Why are they still using these shady cookies? What happens to users’ data once it has been hoarded in the servers of Mindgeek? Why are they so dismissive about GDPR compliance?
  
  Report from CookieMetrix.com
• Pornhub is exploiting feminist slogans for marketing gain, stating in this new cookie banner “Your cookies, your choice” with a clear cultural appropriation from the struggles for reproductive rights and freedom of choice (the famous sentence “my body, my choice”). They only offer accepting options on their platform which is not even a choice. A most appropriate sentence would have been “Your cookies, our profit”.

With this cookie banner enlargement we see how Mindgeek was only pretending to start respecting users’ consent on Pornhub. We had to shame them once again and call out their tricks to force them into what is already imposed by law. We have seen this happening also during the previous email exchange of our many Data Subject Access Requests. They are always trying to do less than the bare minumum, giving priority to their profits.

If it is true that the new owner of Mindgeek, Ethical Capital Partners, wants to share its moderation tools with the world and be really transparent we urge them to break the silence and open the gate for public scrutiny over their business practice.

#StopDataPorn is a collective initiative calling on users and authorities to take immediate action and address the exploitative practices of porn platforms. This users’ data violation is not the sole abuse done by Pornhub, who is already involved in scandals about monetizing from sexual assault videos and letting children access its adult material.

Contact

📬 [email protected] 📬

The post Pornhub tries to hide its privacy crisis by silently running for cover appeared first on #StopDataPorn.

The post Abbiamo parlato con gli italiani che vogliono fermare Pornhub appeared first on #StopDataPorn.

We are pleased to see that, after the public launch of our campaign just 3 weeks ago, the platform Pornhub has been exposed and forced to add a cookie banner on its website to ask consent from users for the deployment of tracking cookies. An admission of guilt by the platform for not having complied with the ePrivacy Directive for all these years, but what’s wrong with this new cookie banner?

• Pornhub is still absolutely not compliant with GDPR because in their privacy policy it is still indicated that legal basis for data processing is “legitimate interest” and not “consent”, in addition to the fact that this consent must be reinforced pursuant to art. 9 GDPR for sensitive data on users’ sexual preferences;
• The banner is too small and users can still use the platform just ignoring it, which goes against the guidelines provided many European data protection authorities.
• there is no “Refuse all” option or an X to close the banner and continue navigating without accepting any cookies.

This is a clear sign of how the platform has been ignoring even the most basic principles of data protection law up until now. It has been necessary to name and shame Pornhub so that digital rights of users could be considered. We hope that this can become an example for all those who want to break the silence and the cultural taboo that at the moment is shielding porn tech giants from serious legal compliance and scrutiny by civil society.

Not only as far as this platform is concerned, the enforcement of GDPR turns out to be often ineffective, easily circumvented, and all the costs are considerable compared to the hoped-for benefits. In the end, a certain kind of user exploitation is legitimized by the addition of banners that give us no guarantees about how the data is being processed, because a large part of the data industry has learned to live with GDPR without actually changing practices.

There is no doubt that progress has been made with GDPR in the area of user privacy protection, but the debate is still open. It is through the example of the most controversial cases that, we at #StopDataPorn, intend to challenge the practice and the business of exploiting user data.

#StopDataPorn is a collective initiative calling on users and authorities to take immediate action and address the exploitative practices of porn platforms. This users’ data violation is not the sole abuse done by Pornhub, who is already involved in scandals about monetizing from sexual assault videos and letting children access its adult material.

Contact

📬 [email protected] 📬

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