What are the risks of watching VR porn online?

There’s nothing wrong with watching porn videos on the internet, but especially the free tube sites come with security risks. Take a few precautions before you visit a porn site.
You might already know about the risks of streaming online porn, but someone visiting a porn site for the first time could easily end up on the wrong site when curiosity kicks in.

What’s at stake when you watch porn online?

Most adult websites, including the free tube sites, don’t use HTTPS, which is a secure web protocol that offers visitors an extra layer of protection. They use regular HTTP, which means anyone (e.g. government, hackers, neighbours) can see what’s happening between your browser and the web server.
Chaturbate and Bongacams and other live chat sites usually do have HTTPS protection. The free tube sites – these are sites where you don’t have to pay to see the content – are too slow to use the secure protocol. Only three adult websites use HTTPS: Chaturbate, xHamster and RedTube.
This is alarming and risky, so it’s important to know and check if the site you’re on has HTTPS. Look for a padlock or the word “Secure” next to the URL in your browser.

Pornhub, which had more than 23 billion visitors last year, doesn’t have HTTPS. Beeg.com and Xvideos do use HTTPS, but even then you still need to be careful.  If someone sends you an unsecured HTTP link, the site will load without HTTPS protection. You can install the browser extension HTTPS Everywhere yourself to force those pages to use HTTPS.
The reason bigger porn sites don’t use HTTPS is the extremely high costs and complexity of setting it up with all their advertisers. Redtube.com is the positive exception.

Never visit HTTP porn sites on a public network

If you’re on a shared or public network, someone can easily snoop during your HTTP porn session and see which videos you watch and all the data you send to that site, such as usernames, passwords, personal information and credit card details.
Private or incognito mode doesn’t hide your browsing from your employer, your internet provider or the websites you visit. So don’t watch porn at work – incognito mode won’t save you.

Be careful what you click on

Malvertisements are “malicious ads” that can contain spyware, and when you click a bad link they give hackers a window where they can see everything you do. The adult industry has had problems with this malvertising, especially where the ad content was changed after the ad was submitted. So if you get a pop‑up ad while you’re on a porn site, first figure out if it’s real by reading the warning and checking for spelling mistakes and urgent wording like lots of exclamation marks. Also take the time to figure out how to safely close the pop‑up without clicking the wrong icon. Misleading "no", "cancel", "close" or red "X" buttons can be deliberately built into the ad as triggers.
In short: be very careful, read everything properly, follow the tips above and never just click on ads and similar stuff. Only then is watching "VR porno" on a secure network fun and safe!