A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book
Sanctity at Stake: Analyzing Third-Party Data Leaks on Websites of Religious Communities
Authors: Lohi, Henna; Puhtila, Panu; Heino, Timi; Rajapaksha, Sammani; Rauti, Sampsa
Editors: Clary, Thomas S.
Publication year: 2025
Book title : Horizons in Computer Science Research : Volume 26
Series title: Horizons In Computer Science Research
Number in series: 26
First page : 171
Last page: 188
ISBN: 979-8-89530-659-8
ISSN: 2159-2012
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52305/FZHT7882
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: No Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : No Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.52305/FZHT7882
Modern websites provide many benefits to religious communities. At the same time, there is a critical need for protecting users' privacy, specifically the data concerning users' religious beliefs. Focusing on the largest religious communities in Finland, we studied the extent of data leaks to third parties on their websites. Our findings from 148 websites reveal that in 56.1% of the studied websites, potentially sensitive data concerning religious affiliation inadvertently ends up in the hands of third parties such as Google and Meta. The stark majority of these websites also either do not use cookie consent banners at all, or have banners that are rife with dark patterns used to mislead the users in falsely giving their consent. This underscores the need for web developers and data protection officers to rectify privacy issues and ensure that the websites comply with regulations. Based on our findings, we also offer recommendations on how website developers should mitigate these kinds of threats to user privacy.