A Real-Time Website Privacy Inspector
Who is peeking over your shoulder while you work, watch videos, learn, explore, and shop on the internet? Enter the address of any website, and Blacklight will scan it and reveal the specific user-tracking technologies on the site—and who’s getting your data. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Blacklight is currently testing for …
Blacklight normally takes between 30 seconds and one minute to finish all tests.
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Ad trackers
Is this website sending data about users to advertising companies?
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Third-party cookies
Is this website using cookies that track users around the web?
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Tracking that evades cookie blockers
Is this website invisibly identifying your browser?
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Session-monitoring scripts
Blacklight looks for scripts that record how a user interacts with a page.
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Keystroke capturing
Is this website logging text typed by users, before they hit submit?
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Facebook
Is this website sending data about users to Facebook?
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Google Analytics
Is this website sending data to Google so it can advertise to its visitors?
Visited www.pornhub.com on Apr. 7, 2025, 12:45 ET
Learn more
Blacklight visited www.pornhub.com with a headless browser, running custom software built by The Markup. The request came from a server hosted in the Columbus Metro Area in Ohio, USA. Our software emulated an iPhone, so the server loaded the mobile version of the site. For this test …
Blacklight visited the home page …
… and this randomly selected page.
The screenshots you are seeing were taken when Blacklight visited the pages. You can also download an archive of the results.
Blacklight works by visiting each website with a headless browser running custom software built by The Markup. To learn more, read our methodology.
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3
Ad trackers found on this site. This is less than half the average of seven that we found on popular sites
Websites containing advertising tracking technology load JavaScript code or small invisible images that are used to either build your advertising profile or to identify you for ad targeting on this site. These techniques are often used in addition to cookies to profile you.
Blacklight detected trackers on this page sending data to companies involved in online advertising. Blacklight detected a script belonging to the company Alphabet, Inc..
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0
No third-party cookies found. We found an average of three on popular sites.
These are commonly used by advertising tracking companies to profile you based on your internet usage.
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Tracking that evades cookie blockers wasn't found.
Canvas fingerprinting was not detected on this website. This technique is designed to identify users even if they block third-party cookies. It can be used to track users across sites. It secretly draws an image on your browser when you visit websites that use it, for the purpose of identifying your device. This technique was used by six percent of popular sites when we scanned them in September 2020.
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Session recording services not found on this website.
Blacklight did not detect the use of a session recorder, which tracks user mouse movement, clicks, taps, scrolls, or even network activity. Websites that use the technique compile this data into videos and heat maps that website owners can watch to see how users interact with the site. Research has shown these practices are insecure and make sensitive user data such as passwords and credit card information more vulnerable to leaks. This technique was used by fifteen percent of popular websites when we scanned them in September 2020.
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We did not find this website capturing keystrokes.
Key logging is when a website captures the text that you type into a web page before you hit the submit button. This technique has been used to identify anonymous web users by matching them to postal addresses and real names. This technique was used by four percent of popular websites when we scanned them in September 2020.
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Facebook Pixel not found on this website.
The Facebook pixel is a snippet of code that sends data back to Facebook about people who visit this site and allows the site operator to later target them with ads on Facebook. A Facebook spokesperson told The Markup that the company set up this system so that a user doesn’t have to be “simultaneously logged into Facebook and viewing a third-party website for our business tools to function.” Common actions that can be tracked via pixel include viewing a page or specific content, adding payment information, or making a purchase. The Facebook pixel appeared in thirty percent of popular websites when we scanned them in September 2020.
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Google Analytics' "remarketing audiences" feature not found.
The Google Analytics "remarketing audiences" feature enables user tracking for targeted advertising across the internet. This feature allows a website to build custom audiences based on how a user interacts with this particular site and then follow those users across the internet and target them with advertising on other sites using Google Ads and Display & Video 360. A Google spokesperson told The Markup that site operators are supposed to inform visitors when data collected with this feature is used to connect this browsing data with someone’s real-world identity. You know when those shoes you were looking at follow you around the internet? This is one of the trackers leading to that. This feature appeared in fifty percent of popular websites when we scanned them in September 2020.
The inspected website contacted some well known actors in the ad-tech industry. Not all of these loaded trackers, so they may be different from those listed in the tests section above. For more information on each company, what it does, and which of its domains Blacklight found during the inspection, click the arrow. Reading this can give you a better idea of how the ad-tech industry works.
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Alphabet
Blacklight detected this website sending user data to Alphabet, the technology conglomerate that encompasses Google and associated companies like Nest. The Silicon Valley giant collects data from twice the number of websites as its closest competitor, Facebook. An Alphabet spokesperson told The Markup that internet users can go here if they want to opt out of the company showing them targeted ads based on their browsing history.
The site sent information to the following domains doubleclick.net, google.com, googletagmanager.com.
Company description accurate on Sept. 3, 2020Read Google's Privacy Policy
See Something Worrying?
Tell us about it
If you see something that you didn't expect and think we should know about it, tell us using the email link below. You can also download an archive of the above results.
Something doesn't seem right here? Send us an Email!
Blacklight results should not be taken as the final word on potential privacy violations by a given website. Rather, they should be treated as an initial automated inspection that requires further investigation before a definitive claim can be made.
DuckDuckGo's Tracker Radar last updated Mar. 20, 2024. For more information on how we use it, read our methodology.
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Or read about what we've found with Blacklight
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Concept and development
Surya Mattu -
Design and front-end development
Sam Morris -
Infrastructure and security
Simon Fondrie-Teitler -
Research and reporting
Aaron Sankin -
Original editing
Evelyn Larrubia -
Copy editing
Jill Jaroff -
Initial platform development
Yotam Mann
Chris Deaner
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Product Director
Ramsey Isler -
Additional development
