this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
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You know, I do wonder how many of these statistics are influenced by Linux users tendancy to use adblockers and block tracking. Linux could be more popular than it looks.
Also, they should tell us how much of that increase is due to the Steam Deck. :P
The issue is whether the data is collected by a known third party tracker domain which would be blocked by an adblocker
Large sites usually have their own first-party analytics. Often they don't want third parties to be in possession of detailed analytics data.
Pornhub mentions that they use Google Analytics about halfway down the page in the section “Proportion of Female Visitors”
https://www.pornhub.com/insights/2023-year-in-review
That's interesting... It means their demographic data is coming from users' Google accounts.
They likely have a contract with Google to control how their data can be used.
I believe it’s possible for Google to collect demographic data without a Google account. From the below, they collect data from their doubleclick cookies (they own the data, might be Google accounts), Android device IDs (there’s a decent chance it’s a Google account still), or from an Apple ID (I don’t think this is linked to the Google Account).
They can probably make assumptions on demographics based on browsing history and interests that are pretty darn accurate with enough data (e.g. someone searching for all three of birth control medicine, a nail salon, and Victoria’s Secret has a pretty darn high chance of being a woman).
So no, don’t think it necessarily comes from Google accounts, but I’m sure they have a big contract to ensure Pornhub gets all the appropriate advertising revenue.
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2799357
That's true, but I think they'd store all that data as part of someone's Google account. Either that or they have a separate type of user just for tracking/targeting.
An adblocker does not hide the os
True, btw I am on Windows 10 Chrome 😉
Found the closet Arch user
Unfortunately, due to the constant willful or untested shenanigans of various website I have set up all my system's Firefox profiles to spoof by default its user agent (and other JavaScript properties) as Windows 11, x86_64, Firefox LTS (even if I use latest, Aurora or beta). Some blantant recent example: YouTube uses lower quality options on browsers running on Arm-based systems — misreporting as an x86 CPU appears to be a widespread browser fix
Doing so has helped me and many friends/family I switched to a flavor of Linux (mostly Mint, but sometimes LMDE or Ubuntu or specific requirements/demands) avoid numerous dumb problems.
Even on mobile sometimes UX breaking issues creep up.