Hypothetical - Identity Leak?

Inspired by a posted question in the r/AskAnEscort subreddit, where escorts answer questions from clients, and occasionally other escorts. The question was: "Should I let an SW know about a potential privacy hole?"

I have not had this experience personally, no cause for alarm for any ladies that know me.

The question asked was:

"I recently added the phone number of a sex worker I know to my private GVoice account. The phone number was automatically matched to an existing Google user, which led to me discovering what appears to be her civilian identity, along with some photos showing her face, which she obscures in her professional ads.

Would it be supportive to contact her and let her know about this potential hole in her privacy, or would that come across as creepy?"

I have to admit that I would be very conflicted about this. I would want her to know, but I would also have reservations about telling her because of what I would believe to be a likely perception that I was stalking her and trying to find real world info about her.

Then when I turn the question around, I think it would be similarly problematic for a provider to warn a client of the same thing. Of course many providers already know clients' real world information due to screening so maybe it's not as problematic as the other way around.

As of right now, 5/5 escorts who responded said they would want to know, although one did say:

"Yes, yes you should. Just understand that it will probably make her very very uncomfortable, for a good reason."

However my question isn't about whether providers would want to know - I think most of them would - but rather what they would think of the client that told them, or conversely, what clients would think of an escort that told them.

Spank, let it go. It's not your problem. Come On Man!!!

Man let it go. It's not your problem. Originally Posted by DocHolyday

Doc - I don't know if you meant me when you said "your", but it's definitely not my problem as it hasn't happened to me. I was just wondering what people thought because of the Reddit question and it seemed like an interesting topic to discuss. It may be that you meant it's not the client's problem by saying "your problem" but I wasn't clear on which you meant.

Anyway, I will state again that it's not a situation I have experienced, it is purely a hypothetical.

Spank, let it go. It's not your problem. Come On Man!!! Originally Posted by DocHolyday

Well, now I see from your edit that you did mean me even though I stated it was hypothetical and clearly stated that it had not happened to me and that is the truth.

Here is a link to the Reddit question and whether you believe it not, I was not the one who posted it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnEscort...ntial_privacy/

Never mind. I just tried to post a simple question to start some conversation. If it's going to cause that kind of reaction let's just let it go.

Many times I've tried to do some background checking on an escort and stumbled across their RL name and photos. I know real names of many ladies that are still active here, and on occasion, I've brought it to their attention how they are leaving an unintentional trail online. Sometimes I just go on as if I never found that info. What I never do is divulge names to another person. If someone had a way of determining my RL info I'd want to know so I could fix it, but I would expect them to not tell others what they may have discovered. Everyone deserves their privacy.

Many times I've tried to do some background checking on an escort and stumbled across their RL name and photos. I know real names of many ladies that are still active here, and on occasion, I've brought it to their attention how they are leaving an unintentional trail online. Sometimes I just go on as if I never found that info. What I never do is divulge names to another person. If someone had a way of determining my RL info I'd want to know so I could fix it, but I would expect them to not tell others what they may have discovered. Everyone deserves their privacy. Originally Posted by willro

100% agree that everyone deserves their privacy. Hopefully the reaction of the ladies you informed was to understand that you were being helpful and not creeping on them. Maybe I'm assuming too much by thinking many might perceive it as stalking. I'd imagine much depends on how it is disclosed to them and most likely how well you know each other already.

Actually, I think it's an interesting topic, and yes, I would tell someone if I thought they were in danger of being exposed because of a security lapse. Many of these women work outside the hobby, have families, etc., and would probably want you to tell them if their identities could be easily discerned.

Actually, I think it's an interesting topic, and yes, I would tell someone if I thought they were in danger of being exposed because of a security lapse. Many of these women work outside the hobby, have families, etc., and would probably want you to tell them if their identities could be easily discerned. Originally Posted by ParrotheadRich

Yeah. I think I would tell as well, but I admit I would be concerned about what they might think of me for finding the information, even if I knew it was inadvertent. With some ladies I know very well I don't think it would be an issue however, and I'm sure they would appreciate being informed.

As much of a discretion freak as I am, I would definitely appreciate a gentleman letting me know if my hobby info accidentally linked to my real world info.

I can see how it could come across as a bit creepy, but the provider should also be thankful that the hobbyist is willing to let her know so she can correct it.

It's happened to me. Even pulled up pics of their kids. I let them know, so they could change there number and their G+ settings.

It's happened to me. Even pulled up pics of their kids. I let them know, so they could change there number and their G+ settings. Originally Posted by alphatwo

Interesting that it's another G+ incident. I'd think Facebook would be really bad about this as well, based on whatever dark magic they use to link people together. I saw an article where Facebook started suggesting a psychiatrist's patients together with no apparent linkage other than her being their psychiatrist.

Article pasted below.

Facebook recommended a psychiatrist's patients friend each other — and there's no clear explanation

Facebook's ability to figure out the "people we might know" is sometimes eerie. Many a Facebook user has been creeped out when a one-time Tinder date or an ex-boss from 10 years ago suddenly pops up as a friend recommendation. How does the big blue giant know?

While some of these incredibly accurate friend suggestions are amusing, others are alarming, such as this story from Lisa*, a psychiatrist who is an infrequent Facebook user, mostly signing in to RSVP for events. Last summer, she noticed that the social network had started recommending her patients as friends—and she had no idea why.

"I haven’t shared my email or phone contacts with Facebook," she told me over the phone.
The next week, things got weirder.

Most of her patients are senior citizens or people with serious health or developmental issues, but she has one outlier: a 30-something snowboarder. Usually, Facebook would recommend he friend people his own age, who snowboard and jump out of planes. But Lisa told me that he had started seeing older and infirm people, such as a 70-year-old gentleman with a walker and someone with cerebral palsy.

"He laughed and said, 'I don’t know any of these people who showed up on my list— I'm guessing they see you,'" recounted Lisa. "He showed me the list of friend recommendations, and I recognized some of my patients."

She sat there awkwardly and silently. To let him know that his suspicion was correct would violate her duty to protect her patients’ privacy.

Another one of her female patients had a friend recommendation pop up for a fellow patient she recognized from the office’s elevator. Suddenly, she knew the other patient’s full name along with all their Facebook profile information.

"It’s a massive privacy fail," said Lisa. "I have patients with HIV, people that have attempted suicide and women in coercive and violent relationships."

Lisa lives in a relatively small town and was alarmed that Facebook was inadvertently outing people with health and psychiatric issues to her network. She’s a tech-savvy person, familiar with VPNs, Tor and computer security practices recommended by the Electronic Frontier Foundation–but she had no idea what was causing it.

She hadn’t friended any of her patients on Facebook, nor looked up their profiles. She didn’t have a guest wifi network at the office that they were all using. After seeing my report that Facebook was using location from people’s smartphones to make friend recommendations, she was convinced this happened because she had logged into Facebook at the office on her personal computer. She thought that Facebook had figured out that she and her patients were all in the same place repeatedly. However, Facebook says it only briefly used location for friend recommendations in a test and that it was just "at the city-level."

I tried to help Lisa figure out what could be causing this and reached out to Facebook about the case. Unfortunately, due to health privacy reasons, Lisa was not able to put me in touch with her patients directly.

When Lisa looked at her Facebook profile, she was surprised to see that she had, at some point, given Facebook her cell phone number. It's a number that her patients could also have in their phones. Many people don't realize that if they give Facebook access to their phone contacts, it uses that information to make friend recommendations; so if your ex-boss or your one-time Tinder date or your psychiatrist is a contact in your phone, you might start seeing them pop up in the "People You May Know" list.

That's my guess as to how this happened. All these patients likely have Lisa's number in their phones, so an algorithm analyzing this network of phone contacts might reasonably assume all these people are connected. A phone number alone can be quite a revealing bit of information, which is why it's so significant that WhatsApp is about to share its one billion users' phone numbers with Facebook, where they too could be used to make friend recommendations (unless you opt out).

A Facebook spokesperson could not confirm this theory. He said the company didn't have enough information to figure out why patients were recommended to one another as friends.

"People You May Know is based on a variety of factors, including mutual friends, work and education information, networks you're part of, contacts you’ve imported and many other factors," said the spokesperson by email. "Without additional information from the people involved, we’re not able to explain why one person was recommended as a friend to another."

This is totally reasonable, but also frustrating in that it leaves this mystery unsolved.
Lisa's medical community has started recommending that patients concerned about privacy not log into Facebook or other social media accounts at medical offices, or even leave their phones in their cars during appointments. That's likely good advice, but it doesn't stop Facebook from mining their phone numbers.

Spank, I'm not attacking you Bro. I don't attack members. I settle disputes, not start them. My posting history proves that out. Besides, I like you Spank. So chill out Spank and have an adult beverage. I'm chilling out riding Blackie today.
Later Bro.

Spank, let it go. It's not your problem. Come On Man!!! Originally Posted by DocHolyday

Spank, I'm not attacking you Bro. I don't attack members. I settle disputes, not start them. My posting history proves that out. Besides, I like you Spank. So chill out Spank and have an adult beverage. I'm chilling out riding Blackie today.
Later Bro. Originally Posted by DocHolyday

Okay Marshall. Enjoy your ride.

Trying to get back on track, it would be great to hear some other providers' perspectives, and thank you Vannah for sharing yours. I sincerely hope it never happens to you or any of the ladies here.

I've had this happen with a provider I've seen. I was kind of worried that she would take it the wrong way, like I was stalking her or something... But I went ahead and told her all the info I found about her, exactly how I connected all the dots, and the fact that it had only took me about 10 minutes to do it.. She took the info really well, better than I thought she would have... After I told her, she joked "I guess you don't have to call me (her provider name) anymore, Just call me my real name"... I told her I had no use for the info, unless out of convenience, she would like me to come visit her at her house instead of her traveling to me, she laughed and said "Yeah I guess you could, since you know my address"..