The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada believes that Aylo, the company that runs Pornhub from Montreal, violated Canadian privacy law by posting intimate images on its sites without the consent of the people who appear there.
In a report published Thursday, the Office claims to have noted that “intimate content of a very sensitive nature” was distributed on Aylo sites without the people concerned being informed. And people have encountered “a very cumbersome and ineffective process” when trying to have images or videos posted without their consent removed, the organization adds.
“The inadequate privacy protections on Pornhub and other Aylo sites have had devastating consequences for the complainant and other victims of the communication of intimate images without consent,” said Commissioner Philippe Dufresne in a statement.
The report mentions victims who suffered serious consequences following certain broadcasts: social stigmatization, psychological harm, financial losses, even suicide attempts, in certain cases.
What’s more, the report lifts the veil on the functioning of the team of moderators who must filter the videos presented.
We learn that a “primary moderation” team has the mandate to examine each image and each video before making it accessible to the public. However, according to the information that the Office was able to gather from employees, each moderator examines up to 500 videos per day, or 60 videos per hour. “Unless red flags are identified, moderators generally do not watch videos in full, but rather quickly view portions of them to determine if there are any clues warranting further examination,” reads we in the report.
The company claims to train moderators who can recognize potentially illegal content by detecting, for example, “signs demonstrating the absence of consent”, such as behavior resulting from impairment.
The commissioner recommends that Aylo “immediately stop collecting, using and communicating intimate images and videos produced by users” until its platforms put in place measures to comply with privacy obligations. private life.
So far, Aylo has not demonstrated that it obtains the informed consent of the people who appear in the videos broadcast, according to the commissioner: “Given the enormous risks involved, Aylo must take measures to ensure that it only broadcasts intimate images and videos if all people appearing in the content are directly informed and consent to it. »
The investigation into Aylo was launched following a complaint from a woman who discovered that her ex-boyfriend had uploaded an intimate video and other images of her without her consent to sites on the Internet. business.