Pornhub has confirmed a major data breach that could expose the search histories of more than 200 million users, raising serious privacy concern, especially for LGBTQ people who rely on online anonymity. In a statement released on December 12 and updated days later, Pornhub said its Premium members’ data was breached, with the incident dating back to 2023.
The company said, “We recently learned that an unauthorised party gained unauthorised access to analytics data stored with Mixpanel, a third-party data analytics service provider…This was not a breach of Pornhub Premium’s systems.” Pornhub stressed that no passwords, credentials, payment details or government IDs were compromised. Still, experts warn the leaked data could be used for sextortion, threatening to expose users’ viewing histories to family or employers.
Reports say the data includes email addresses, locations, and detailed search and viewing activity. Pornhub is urging users to stay alert, saying, “While our investigation is ongoing, we encourage all users to remain vigilant.”
