Here’s Looking at YouPorn, Kids

Just in case the average red-blooded American male needed another reminder of the hard drive and sex drive hazards of looking at online porn, today comes news from CNET of an action by two Newport Beach men against top-ranked naughty Netherlands purveyor YouPorn.

First off, kudos to the OC pair for being willing to put their names to this lawsuit, and to CNET for the cheeky headline (pictured). On the other hand, and we’re not trying to be crude here, CNET may have erred this morning by allowing a reporter with the last name of Shankland to byline the news item. The veteran reporter explains the phenomenon of “browser sniffing:”

Web browsers generally keep track of the websites a person has visited, showing the links in different colors depending on whether they’ve visited or not. Browser sniffing essentially asks the browser what color should be used for various links; the answer can reveal that person’s browsing history.

Last week, Forbes blogger Kashmir Hill had the scary pre-lawsuit details on YouPorn’s allegedly illegal activities as well as a look at the ominous conclusions of a UC San Diego report, which found similar tracking techniques being employed by dozens of leading non-porn sites.