I Used a Newsroom Privacy Tool to Audit 100+ Adult Sites. Here's How the Stack Works.

The author built a privacy and security scanning pipeline for 100+ adult websites using Blacklight (a newsroom privacy inspector by The Markup) for tracking detection and VirusTotal for malware analysis. Blacklight detects third-party trackers, cookies, fingerprinting, and session recording but cannot see server-side data collection. VirusTotal scans showed near-zero malware on major platforms, with the real risk residing in ad networks rather than the sites themselves.