Two California men have filed a class-action suit against Midstream Media, which owns the YouPorn adult Web sites, for allegedly tracking their online behavior via surreptitious a JavaScript code known as “history sniffing.”

YouPorn is involved in an “illegal and intrusive scheme” designed to peer into the men’s lives and collect personal information about them, according to the lawsuit, which was filed Friday in California district court.

David Pitner and Jared Reagan, both of Newport Beach, visited YouPorn and later discovered that their Internet activity was being tracked by the site.

“By embedding JavaScript code on its Web site designed to present [Pitner and Reagan's] Web browsers with a list of URL’s, [YouPorn] was able to obtain from [their] Web history files whether [they] had visited a variety of different Web sites or not,” according to the suit. “This ‘sniffing history’ manipulates the fact that browsers display links differently depending on whether or not their target has been visited.”

The men do not explain how they discovered that their activity was being tracked, but a day before their lawsuit was filed, researchers at the University of California-San Diego published a paper that detailed how “history sniffing” works.

via YouPorn Sued Over Alleged Browser ‘History Sniffing’ | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.