Facebook Tracks Maximum Data, And Pornhub Asks For Least Private Data: Report

While internet surfers are aware of the concept of targeted advertisement, not many know the extent to which brands collect the data of online visitors.

Reuters

A new report now attempts to do that and as per its findings, Facebook unsurprisingly ranks as the top data garner in the world.

As per the data shared by a Clario report, Facebook procures 70.59% of all the data a business can legally collect about you. Facebook-owned Instagram comes next, collecting 58.82% of all available data.

As per the report, this data includes regular data like name, location, email address and date of birth, as well as other information like ¡°your hobbies, height, weight and sexual orientation.¡± Being a social media network, Facebook asks for this information for recommending friends to you, marking events, suggesting groups and pages to follow and of course, for directing advertisements to you.

Facebook Tracks Most Of Your Data; Pornhub Asks For Least Private Data: Report

Advertisements are the main source of revenue for Facebook, which clocked around $16.6 billion from sales revenue in 2018. As social media platforms continue to collect more data than others, this revenue is only expected to skyrocket in the coming years.

The practice, however, is not limited to social media platforms. ¡°93% of companies will store your email address,¡± the report mentions. They might never use it or maintain a regular connection with the visitor through mails, depending on the service. ¡°An email address is the basic data a company will request from you,¡± the report points out.

Much more extensive data is collected by dating apps including Tinder and Grindr, which rank on the list right after Facebook and Instagram. Other prominent services like Uber, Spotify and Netflix also rank high.

In comparison, Pornhub ranks at the bottom of the list, collecting just over 5 percent of personal data of online visitors. WhatsApp collects over 11 percent of data.