Privacy online : a myth?

A few tips to ensure your security

By celeste and susie showers

The impact of SESTA/FOSTA1 has dramatically altered the online landscape for sex workers and civillians alike. From deplatforming to doxxing, the safety of sex workers is viewed by many as the most disposible.2 The dreaded “shadowban” is placed on SWs without warning and effectively blocks your posts from being viewed by your audience. The reliance on these external platforms to advertise with no more access to SW-specific listing sites (RIP Backpage)3 means that your business and therefore your personal wellbeing and safety is at risk. Indeed, the loss of income caused by these measures can lead to greater risk-taking, because the bills must be paid! In addition, some SWs choose to work on online platforms to leave toxic workplaces and secure more control over their working conditions. So these actions go far beyond losing access to an Instagram account, it’s our working conditions that are directly affected!   You can exercise some measures to help protect yourself and your data: All of these may not be relevant depending on your usage of the Internet related to the kind of SW you do or what your boundaries are.
Secure your accounts/ passwords
  • Encrypted software like Signal and Protonmail are only secure end-to-end when both the receiver and the sender are using the same service. Example when you send a message from your PM account to a Gmail address, the data is still exposed. 
  • Use complicated safe passwords with uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols.4 
  • Set up the two-step authentication in your online accounts when possible.
Collage: Jesse Dekel
Secure your browsing habits
  • Sign out of social media accounts before leaving the page, as when you’re signed in your browsing behaviour is tracked on any other pages you open.
  • Use a VPN like TunnelBear to hide your location.
  • Use incognito mode when using your browser.5
  • Use an extension on your browsers to block ads.
  • Manually disable data collection on the websites you use if possible.

Secure your content

  • Make images of yourself less recognizable (For example, close-up angles that do not show recognizable parts of the body, such as the face, tattoos, etc.) 
  • Before posting SW related images, remove EXIF data, which is a time and location stamp embedded in the photo. Use iphone app Shortcuts to automize or search how to delete EXIF data on your specific cell phone model.
  • Don’t post your location on Instagram stories or Snapchat while you are there, wait until you are at another location.
Secure your privacy settings
  • On your website, pay for the extra privacy that does not reveal the domain purchaser’s name and address.6
  • Keep your legal name off PayPal transactions by creating a business account and using  DBA (Doing Business As) as the name. Alternatively, If you link your account to your debit card rather than a credit card, it doesn’t show any name. Check by sending a small transfer of $0.01 to a trusted person and ask them what information is shown on their statement. 
  • Depending on your bank, it is also possible to change the name on your statement. You can put your initials for example.
Collage: Adore Goldman

Secure your ways of communicating

No apps and platforms are totally secure, and many sites are dropping SWers as rules and guidelines change quickly and without warning. 

  • Use code words on forums when talking about services.
  • Do not talk about money or explicit services directly.
  • Check community guidelines before posting on SWers forums. 
  • An email list is the most secure way to keep in touch with clients.
Security when crossing borders
  • When crossing borders, bring as little electronic devices as possible. 
  • Set all social media accounts to private.
  • Delete ALL images and messages on your devices that might be related to SW in any way.
  • Add a numerical password on your smartphone.7
  • Change notification settings to not show any message content on the lock screen. 
  • Advertise your dates outside of the dates you are travelling.
  • Take down any ads with your image on it before you travel.

This advice is subject to change quickly because of the ever evolving online world. Our best weapon against political online attacks are solidarity and organisation among colleagues to obtain changes. 

1.The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) and Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) were passed by the U.S. Senate in 2018. Since then, platforms that knowingly host content that facilitates prostitution have been held accountable. These laws, which are supposed to address sex trafficking, cast a wider net: they come to criminalize any site hosting content associated with prostitution. So it’s no surprise that several social media sites, like Tumblr and Instagram, have decided to change their standards to no longer accept SW content on their platforms.
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2. Thorin Klosowski. (s.-d.). How to Protect Your Digital Privacy ↩

3. To know more on the closure of Backpage and other consequences of SESTA-FOSTA: Adore Goldman, Celeste. (2021). Crusade Against Porn, SWAC Attacks↩

4. Thorin Klosowski. (s.-d.). How to Protect Your Digital Privacy. ↩

5. Dan Raywood. (2018). Top Ten Ways to Reduce Your Digital Footprint. ↩

6. Hacking hustling. (2019). Online Worker Safety Hazards and Cautions : A Practical Harm Reduction Guide on Why and How Sex Workers Can Protect Ourselves at Work ↩

7. IDEM
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