Safety First: How Technology Changed Everything for Escort Services

Posted by Maria Rodriguez | March 23, 2024

"Before smartphones, this work was basically Russian roulette," Samantha told me during one of our first interviews six months ago. "You'd meet clients with no way to verify who they were, no panic button if something went wrong, and no way for anyone to track your location. Technology didn't just change the business—it probably saved my life."

Samantha has been working as an escort in New York for eight years, which means she's witnessed the complete transformation of how safety works in this industry. Her stories about the "old days" versus now illustrate just how dramatically technology has shifted the landscape for sex workers everywhere.

The Before Times

When Samantha started in 2016, finding clients meant either working for an agency that handled all communications, or advertising on platforms like Backpage and Craigslist. "You'd post an ad and hope for the best," she explained. "Clients would call from blocked numbers, give you fake names, and you'd show up to hotel rooms having no idea who you were meeting."

The safety protocols were basic and terrifying: tell a friend your general location, agree on check-in times, and carry pepper spray. "I had a friend who would call me every hour when I was with a client," Samantha remembered. "If I didn't answer, she was supposed to call the police. But what if something happened in that first hour?"

Marcus, the male escort I interviewed for yesterday's post, described similar challenges from the male perspective. "Even as a guy, there were real safety concerns. You're going into private spaces with strangers who found you online. Anything could happen."

The Screening Revolution

Everything changed with the rise of smartphone apps and social media platforms that allowed for better client screening. Elena, a 21-year-old escort who specializes in high-end clientele, walked me through her current screening process during our interview last month.

"Now I require potential clients to provide their LinkedIn profile, work email address, and sometimes even their work phone number," Elena explained, showing me her systematic approach on her phone. "I cross-reference everything. I can usually verify someone's identity, employment, and even get a sense of their personality from their social media presence."

Elena uses a combination of reverse phone number lookups, social media searches, and professional networking sites to build profiles of potential clients before ever meeting them. "I have spreadsheets with client information, preferences, and ratings based on how they behaved during previous appointments."

But the screening goes both ways. Many clients now expect escorts to have verifiable online presences as well. "Clients want to see professional websites, social media accounts, and reviews from other clients," Elena noted. "It's become much more like any other service industry."

Location Safety Apps

The technology that seems to have made the biggest safety impact involves location sharing and emergency features. Almost every escort I've interviewed uses some combination of location-sharing apps, scheduled check-ins, and emergency alert systems.

Jessica, the Asian escort I've written about in previous posts, showed me her safety app setup. "I share my live location with two trusted friends whenever I'm working," she demonstrated on her iPhone. "I set automatic check-in times, and if I don't respond within a certain window, the app sends alerts with my exact location."

She also uses an app that creates fake emergency calls. "If I'm in an uncomfortable situation, I can trigger a realistic-sounding call that gives me an excuse to leave immediately."

David, the former teacher turned male escort, has a different but equally sophisticated system. "I use Find My Friends to share my location, Google Calendar to track all my appointments, and a personal safety app that can silently alert emergency contacts if I'm in trouble."

The Verification Economy

One of the most interesting developments has been the rise of "verification services" that help both escorts and clients confirm each other's identities and safety. These services, while operating in legal gray areas, have created a kind of informal background check system for the industry.

"There are online communities where sex workers share information about clients," explained Alex, whom I first interviewed for my inaugural post. "If someone has a bad experience with a client, word spreads quickly. It's like Yelp, but for safety."

These verification systems include photo verification, phone number databases, and even "okay lists" of clients who have been vouched for by other sex workers. While not foolproof, they create accountability systems that didn't exist before.

The FOSTA-SESTA Catastrophe

However, technology also created new vulnerabilities, particularly after the passage of FOSTA-SESTA in 2018. This federal legislation, ostensibly aimed at combating sex trafficking, eliminated legal protections for websites hosting sex work advertisements.

"Overnight, all the platforms we used for screening and safety disappeared," Samantha recalled. "Backpage shut down. Craigslist eliminated their personal ads. Dozens of smaller sites went dark. We went from having centralized, relatively safe places to advertise to being scattered across random websites with no safety features."

The legislation pushed sex workers toward smaller, less regulated platforms or back to street-based work. "It was supposed to make us safer, but it did the opposite," said Marcus. "When you can't advertise on mainstream platforms, you end up on sketchy sites with no security features and no way to screen clients properly."

Current Safety Tech

Despite the setbacks from FOSTA-SESTA, sex workers have adapted by using multiple platforms and technologies:

Communication apps: Many escorts now use encrypted messaging apps like Signal or Telegram for client communications, providing better privacy protection than regular texting.

Banking apps: Digital payment systems like Venmo, CashApp, and newer cryptocurrency options provide payment trails while avoiding cash transactions.

Review systems: Informal networks on social media platforms allow sex workers to share client information and safety warnings.

Professional websites: Many escorts now maintain their own websites with built-in contact forms, scheduling systems, and client management tools.

The Ongoing Challenge

"Technology made this work infinitely safer than it was ten years ago," Elena concluded during our most recent conversation. "But it also made it more complicated. You need to be a social media manager, a cybersecurity expert, and a digital marketing specialist just to work safely."

The irony isn't lost on anyone in the industry: the same technology that provides safety tools also creates new vulnerabilities, from digital stalking to privacy breaches to platform censorship.