ANONYMITY
I'm becoming increasingly concerned about the anonymity of our members as I always am here answering our hotline, emails, and social media so that our members can remain "anonymous". I'm getting more and more calls that I'm having to field with someone claiming they "want to come to a meeting" and representing they're a person "seeking help" only coming to find out they have alternative motives. Either that - or I'm getting a lot of "catfish" issues from people claiming to be members of our program and talking to me like they are. Only when I ask them questions - it's clear they are not.
The site that was created by Domina Elle at www.sexworkersanonymous.org is one prime example. This woman was online claiming that she "called our hotline and that I was mean to her and cut her off when she was in a life and death situation". Okay well if that's the case then I asked her the name of the person she spoke to. No one answers our phone as Jody. We change the name of the person answering the hotline whoever is answering the line to protect their anonymity, and even mine. The name is changed every month so that we can identify when a call was made to us. So I asked "what was the name of the person who answered the hotline and did this to you?" The answer was a deafening silence.
We then got an email from Meg at Abeni. She said that a person saying they were a member of SWA had told her that we had "violated her confidentiality and her boundaries" by supposedly revealing her status as a member online to the general public. Okay - well if that's the case how about a screen shot or something showing us where we supposedly violated this woman's "anonymity". I asked for the name, phone number, or profile of this person so I could verify if she was in fact someone I even knew, let alone a member, and also proof of this "violation" with a screen shot, email, recording, something. I got nothing back in response back about that. But I did get Meg come back with a very weird statement. She said "no we're not going to partner with you". Which was strange because I had never ASKED to partner with her. When I said that to her - next thing I know she's online telling other people I'm "threatening her" and "she's afraid to leave her house because of Jody" and all sorts of weirdness that was so crazy I had to send her a notice that if it kept up - I'd sue for defamation.
I've been getting more and more text messages from people claiming to be members of SWA telling me that the name of our program is "offensive" and "insulting" and "legitimizes the sex industry" and that I need to change our name. Okay here's what's weird. Anyone who is a member of our program knows that if they want to change anything like our name - all they have to do is make a motion at their home group. That will then go out to other members and other home groups and then a vote will be taken. I then carry out the votes of our members. In other words, real members know that I'm just a trusted servant. I'm not responsible for making decisions like the name of our program.
It carried into our Facebook group. I had two women join our facebook group I didn't recognize. Then one asked me to remove her from the group because she was "not a sex worker but a prostitute". Okay strange - because in our program and at our meetings we do not identify as a "sex worker" but as a "prostitute". So why was she upset? At Narcotics Anonymous members do not identify as a "narcotic" but as an addict. We do not identify by a noun or an industry or a work function. That would be like identifying as a "cashier" or a "secretary". We identify by the core of the issue for us - which for us is prostitution at the core.
I've already had to tell anyone who is a member of our group they can't add us a friends or contacts anywhere. The reason? These trolls will start contacting anyone who is a friend or contact and "warn" them to "stay away". For those who haven't believed me - I told them to just add me and wait two days. Sure enough - they get one of these threatening emails. This means that no one who actually is a friend, or connection, or even a family member, can't connect to us on facebook, twitter, youtube, Linkedin, etc. Until I can figure out a way to have these as connections without other people being able to identify who is in the group - I don't know a solution to this.
A show was on TV recently called "Escaping Polygamy". I had tried reaching out to someone who was claiming to be one of the producers. They were claiming they were trying to rescue these girls from abuse and a cult - but they didn't know anything like firewalls on smartphones, or TOR or Wickr or Hushmail, etc. I told her I was going to reach out to one of the main producers - which I located a profile for one of them on Facebook. I sent him an email and got a response back saying he wanted to talk to me. As I went to respond - Facebook sends me an email saying that this was a fake profile and they'd shut down the account.
I had been storing a tape recording of a phone call on my computer that I was waiting to get permission from the other person to post this recording online. Before I could obtain her consent - the tape was published on www.sexworkersanonymous.com without either of our consent.
So I'm becoming increasingly concerned about the anonymity of people who are contacting us for help. I decided to set up a more secure email account for us. I then got onto TOR and tried to search for a more confidential email source. Funny thing was that Google refused to let me use their search engine from TOR. I kept getting a screen saying I needed to "identify I was not a robot" before it would let me search for anything - even where to buy ice cream.
I remembered one confidential email company and went to set up an account there. I set it up from TOR - however they insisted on verifying my phone. There was no way to set up an email account there without using a phone number that could traced back to me through the phone. But I figured that was private - so I went ahead. Only when I set up the account from TOR - they wouldn't let me use the account.
Linkedin came to me and said they were going to shut down our account unless I showed them a copy of my drivers license. We're running an anonymous program and I should not have to show my ID to have an account set up for us. I kept trying to explain that to them and they would not budge. I let the Linkedin account go.
Facebook TRIED to demand my ID shortly after that. I balked and they backed down. However, they did insist I verify it was me through a code sent to my phone. That was okay - but they did drop the insistence on showing my ID card to use their service.
These blogs - they only tell me what page you're coming from in order to access us. I don't get an IP address or personal information.
However, when you "like" my facebook account it does record your profile information.
Anyone who talks about talking to us on twitter - can easily be found by typing in our name.
I normally place ads on Craigslist and Backpage for anyone wanting help to leave the sex industry - to contact us. I've been getting weird text messages letting me know whoever is stalking us is seeing these ads. If I use their "anonyzing" email service - then they have a record of anyone who emails us off that ad. Therefore, I'm going to only give our phone number in the future to contact us by to protect your anonymity.
I've had to switch to using our land line in order to protect the confidentiality of your phone calls to our hotline. The new laws about phone tapping allow law enforcement to access cell phone calls and even live conversations without a warrant or subpoena.
I want to point out the incident of Michael Weinstein from AHF trying to subpoena medical records of porn performers. http://freespeechcoalition.com/alert-weinstein-subpoenaing-performer-medical-records/ First, this is why we don't keep records on our members or who calls us. Nothing to ask for. Second, this shows that even your doctors can be targeted by people wanting information on sex workers. Do people always need a warrant to access your medical records? Meaning if you see a mental health counselor for example about your issues leaving sex work and/or being a trafficking victim?
Nope. The IRS came in and pulled medical records illegally - or certainly without proper consent. http://www.infowars.com/irs-faces-lawsuit-after-stealing-60-million-medical-records/
Which is why I don't sell our Recovery Guide on Amazon. I don't want anyone to be able to get paperwork to obtain lists of the people who buy that book from them - and therefore only sell our literature off our site. This is why I use paypal for payments - to make sure I don't know your bank information and you don't know minute.
Here's a cherry on the sundae. I got an angry phone call a few days ago by a woman wanting to know where her "starter kit" was to start a meeting. She said she had mailed us a check to cover the cost of the materials and hadn't received her order yet. I explained to her that we don't just sell our starter kits and our website says to start a meeting you have to give me a call. The reason for that is simple. If I don't let anyone into our program or meetings without being screened - I'm sure not going to let someone I haven't screened set up a meeting claiming to be us without screening them also. Now - do you really think I'm going to be a correct address for me on our site? I put in an address so Google maps can give people a general location on us and to help me gps. But that is not where I live! Another reason why our site says if you want a starter kit - to call me first.
She tells me "oh I've got a meeting I promised people I was starting coming up in three days - can I get the materials in time?" I assured her she could. I gave her our paypal information and sat back to wait for her order. Nothing came. I told her if she needed her order shipped - then I needed it by a certain time that day to get the materials shipped in time. She said "I'm having a problem with paypal".
Okay fine. I told her a way she could send me cash or even send me a gift card she could buy online with a credit card. Nothing came.
When I went back to her - I told her time was running out. She says to me "oh that's okay I'm just going to hold the meeting and order the materials later".
No - that's not okay I told her. I told her I was not going to give consent to her to represent a meeting as ours until I had a meeting registration form from her in my hand. Now if the issue was money - fine. I'd send her free ebook meeting materials - but I needed a signed registration form and a treasurers form back to me before the meeting started if she was going to represent herself as leading one of our meetings.
She said "well I have a copy of your 1st edition - isn't that okay?" No - using an outdated copy of our books was not okay. I repeated to her that it was not going to be okay to tell people showing up for a meeting they've been told is our meeting with an outdated copy of our book, and us not having the proper forms signed and returned to us in place. I'd seen something like that in Vegas - the police held a meeting at local church that appeared to be about helping men recover from sex addiction when in fact it was to flush out "johns" to sting operations they were organizing. I saw this with Hempfest - they told the organizers no one would be arrested and told them to go ahead and promote it - then the cops swooped in the show with drug dogs and were jacking up people even in the parking lot and other vendors at the show. So no - if she's going to tell people they're coming to an SWA meeting - then she needs to show me she's holding an SWA meeting and also get me the right paperwork.
Suddenly her whole story changes. She admits this was not going to be a SWA meeting she was holding and that she was "doing what her boss told her to do". I'm like "who is your boss then?" She then confesses her boss had told her to order the meeting materials and that this was not a SWA meeting - but something entirely different. Who is her boss? No idea.
So for some reason this anti-trafficking group her boss was running was going to have prostitutes show up thinking they were coming to an SWA meeting that wasn't about an SWA meeting. That's why they didn't care about what version of the book they had, and that's why they didn't want to fill out our registration forms - and this my dear friends is why I say to you if you're not sure about if a meeting is really one of our meetings - then check with me.
THIS is why I want you to get meeting information about us from me. Because anyone can set up a sign and say they're a SWA meeting otherwise and how would you know? Well how you know is you check with us. Does this mean I'm "controlling" the program? Not at all. Just protecting us and you from imposter meetings.
Look - I've heard of drug dealers who set up NA meetings. A guy got busted in PA not long ago for just that - running a whole diversion program and NA meeting and then using it to sell drugs! What's to stop a reporter, writer, researcher, or even a pimp from setting up a fake SWA meeting?
Me.
So listen - I'm becoming very very concerned about protecting your anonymity. For that reason - I want you to please call me - not email me in the future. If you call me on the cell phone - be aware that phone is our "sensitive" phone meaning don't say anything on there you are worried might be tapped into by someone else without a warrant illegally. Our land line is safe as far as I know anyway. Meaning I want you to be able to talk to me without fear something is going to come back to haunt you or your family. This is not about you telling me something illegal. This is about I want you to know if you call us - then your anonymity is safe and you can talk freely.
That's not in case law enforcement is listening by the way - but in case your trafficker is.
So be careful out there.
The site that was created by Domina Elle at www.sexworkersanonymous.org is one prime example. This woman was online claiming that she "called our hotline and that I was mean to her and cut her off when she was in a life and death situation". Okay well if that's the case then I asked her the name of the person she spoke to. No one answers our phone as Jody. We change the name of the person answering the hotline whoever is answering the line to protect their anonymity, and even mine. The name is changed every month so that we can identify when a call was made to us. So I asked "what was the name of the person who answered the hotline and did this to you?" The answer was a deafening silence.
We then got an email from Meg at Abeni. She said that a person saying they were a member of SWA had told her that we had "violated her confidentiality and her boundaries" by supposedly revealing her status as a member online to the general public. Okay - well if that's the case how about a screen shot or something showing us where we supposedly violated this woman's "anonymity". I asked for the name, phone number, or profile of this person so I could verify if she was in fact someone I even knew, let alone a member, and also proof of this "violation" with a screen shot, email, recording, something. I got nothing back in response back about that. But I did get Meg come back with a very weird statement. She said "no we're not going to partner with you". Which was strange because I had never ASKED to partner with her. When I said that to her - next thing I know she's online telling other people I'm "threatening her" and "she's afraid to leave her house because of Jody" and all sorts of weirdness that was so crazy I had to send her a notice that if it kept up - I'd sue for defamation.
I've been getting more and more text messages from people claiming to be members of SWA telling me that the name of our program is "offensive" and "insulting" and "legitimizes the sex industry" and that I need to change our name. Okay here's what's weird. Anyone who is a member of our program knows that if they want to change anything like our name - all they have to do is make a motion at their home group. That will then go out to other members and other home groups and then a vote will be taken. I then carry out the votes of our members. In other words, real members know that I'm just a trusted servant. I'm not responsible for making decisions like the name of our program.
It carried into our Facebook group. I had two women join our facebook group I didn't recognize. Then one asked me to remove her from the group because she was "not a sex worker but a prostitute". Okay strange - because in our program and at our meetings we do not identify as a "sex worker" but as a "prostitute". So why was she upset? At Narcotics Anonymous members do not identify as a "narcotic" but as an addict. We do not identify by a noun or an industry or a work function. That would be like identifying as a "cashier" or a "secretary". We identify by the core of the issue for us - which for us is prostitution at the core.
I've already had to tell anyone who is a member of our group they can't add us a friends or contacts anywhere. The reason? These trolls will start contacting anyone who is a friend or contact and "warn" them to "stay away". For those who haven't believed me - I told them to just add me and wait two days. Sure enough - they get one of these threatening emails. This means that no one who actually is a friend, or connection, or even a family member, can't connect to us on facebook, twitter, youtube, Linkedin, etc. Until I can figure out a way to have these as connections without other people being able to identify who is in the group - I don't know a solution to this.
A show was on TV recently called "Escaping Polygamy". I had tried reaching out to someone who was claiming to be one of the producers. They were claiming they were trying to rescue these girls from abuse and a cult - but they didn't know anything like firewalls on smartphones, or TOR or Wickr or Hushmail, etc. I told her I was going to reach out to one of the main producers - which I located a profile for one of them on Facebook. I sent him an email and got a response back saying he wanted to talk to me. As I went to respond - Facebook sends me an email saying that this was a fake profile and they'd shut down the account.
I had been storing a tape recording of a phone call on my computer that I was waiting to get permission from the other person to post this recording online. Before I could obtain her consent - the tape was published on www.sexworkersanonymous.com without either of our consent.
So I'm becoming increasingly concerned about the anonymity of people who are contacting us for help. I decided to set up a more secure email account for us. I then got onto TOR and tried to search for a more confidential email source. Funny thing was that Google refused to let me use their search engine from TOR. I kept getting a screen saying I needed to "identify I was not a robot" before it would let me search for anything - even where to buy ice cream.
I remembered one confidential email company and went to set up an account there. I set it up from TOR - however they insisted on verifying my phone. There was no way to set up an email account there without using a phone number that could traced back to me through the phone. But I figured that was private - so I went ahead. Only when I set up the account from TOR - they wouldn't let me use the account.
Linkedin came to me and said they were going to shut down our account unless I showed them a copy of my drivers license. We're running an anonymous program and I should not have to show my ID to have an account set up for us. I kept trying to explain that to them and they would not budge. I let the Linkedin account go.
Facebook TRIED to demand my ID shortly after that. I balked and they backed down. However, they did insist I verify it was me through a code sent to my phone. That was okay - but they did drop the insistence on showing my ID card to use their service.
These blogs - they only tell me what page you're coming from in order to access us. I don't get an IP address or personal information.
However, when you "like" my facebook account it does record your profile information.
Anyone who talks about talking to us on twitter - can easily be found by typing in our name.
I normally place ads on Craigslist and Backpage for anyone wanting help to leave the sex industry - to contact us. I've been getting weird text messages letting me know whoever is stalking us is seeing these ads. If I use their "anonyzing" email service - then they have a record of anyone who emails us off that ad. Therefore, I'm going to only give our phone number in the future to contact us by to protect your anonymity.
I've had to switch to using our land line in order to protect the confidentiality of your phone calls to our hotline. The new laws about phone tapping allow law enforcement to access cell phone calls and even live conversations without a warrant or subpoena.
I want to point out the incident of Michael Weinstein from AHF trying to subpoena medical records of porn performers. http://freespeechcoalition.com/alert-weinstein-subpoenaing-performer-medical-records/ First, this is why we don't keep records on our members or who calls us. Nothing to ask for. Second, this shows that even your doctors can be targeted by people wanting information on sex workers. Do people always need a warrant to access your medical records? Meaning if you see a mental health counselor for example about your issues leaving sex work and/or being a trafficking victim?
Nope. The IRS came in and pulled medical records illegally - or certainly without proper consent. http://www.infowars.com/irs-faces-lawsuit-after-stealing-60-million-medical-records/
Which is why I don't sell our Recovery Guide on Amazon. I don't want anyone to be able to get paperwork to obtain lists of the people who buy that book from them - and therefore only sell our literature off our site. This is why I use paypal for payments - to make sure I don't know your bank information and you don't know minute.
Here's a cherry on the sundae. I got an angry phone call a few days ago by a woman wanting to know where her "starter kit" was to start a meeting. She said she had mailed us a check to cover the cost of the materials and hadn't received her order yet. I explained to her that we don't just sell our starter kits and our website says to start a meeting you have to give me a call. The reason for that is simple. If I don't let anyone into our program or meetings without being screened - I'm sure not going to let someone I haven't screened set up a meeting claiming to be us without screening them also. Now - do you really think I'm going to be a correct address for me on our site? I put in an address so Google maps can give people a general location on us and to help me gps. But that is not where I live! Another reason why our site says if you want a starter kit - to call me first.
She tells me "oh I've got a meeting I promised people I was starting coming up in three days - can I get the materials in time?" I assured her she could. I gave her our paypal information and sat back to wait for her order. Nothing came. I told her if she needed her order shipped - then I needed it by a certain time that day to get the materials shipped in time. She said "I'm having a problem with paypal".
Okay fine. I told her a way she could send me cash or even send me a gift card she could buy online with a credit card. Nothing came.
When I went back to her - I told her time was running out. She says to me "oh that's okay I'm just going to hold the meeting and order the materials later".
No - that's not okay I told her. I told her I was not going to give consent to her to represent a meeting as ours until I had a meeting registration form from her in my hand. Now if the issue was money - fine. I'd send her free ebook meeting materials - but I needed a signed registration form and a treasurers form back to me before the meeting started if she was going to represent herself as leading one of our meetings.
She said "well I have a copy of your 1st edition - isn't that okay?" No - using an outdated copy of our books was not okay. I repeated to her that it was not going to be okay to tell people showing up for a meeting they've been told is our meeting with an outdated copy of our book, and us not having the proper forms signed and returned to us in place. I'd seen something like that in Vegas - the police held a meeting at local church that appeared to be about helping men recover from sex addiction when in fact it was to flush out "johns" to sting operations they were organizing. I saw this with Hempfest - they told the organizers no one would be arrested and told them to go ahead and promote it - then the cops swooped in the show with drug dogs and were jacking up people even in the parking lot and other vendors at the show. So no - if she's going to tell people they're coming to an SWA meeting - then she needs to show me she's holding an SWA meeting and also get me the right paperwork.
Suddenly her whole story changes. She admits this was not going to be a SWA meeting she was holding and that she was "doing what her boss told her to do". I'm like "who is your boss then?" She then confesses her boss had told her to order the meeting materials and that this was not a SWA meeting - but something entirely different. Who is her boss? No idea.
So for some reason this anti-trafficking group her boss was running was going to have prostitutes show up thinking they were coming to an SWA meeting that wasn't about an SWA meeting. That's why they didn't care about what version of the book they had, and that's why they didn't want to fill out our registration forms - and this my dear friends is why I say to you if you're not sure about if a meeting is really one of our meetings - then check with me.
THIS is why I want you to get meeting information about us from me. Because anyone can set up a sign and say they're a SWA meeting otherwise and how would you know? Well how you know is you check with us. Does this mean I'm "controlling" the program? Not at all. Just protecting us and you from imposter meetings.
Look - I've heard of drug dealers who set up NA meetings. A guy got busted in PA not long ago for just that - running a whole diversion program and NA meeting and then using it to sell drugs! What's to stop a reporter, writer, researcher, or even a pimp from setting up a fake SWA meeting?
Me.
So listen - I'm becoming very very concerned about protecting your anonymity. For that reason - I want you to please call me - not email me in the future. If you call me on the cell phone - be aware that phone is our "sensitive" phone meaning don't say anything on there you are worried might be tapped into by someone else without a warrant illegally. Our land line is safe as far as I know anyway. Meaning I want you to be able to talk to me without fear something is going to come back to haunt you or your family. This is not about you telling me something illegal. This is about I want you to know if you call us - then your anonymity is safe and you can talk freely.
That's not in case law enforcement is listening by the way - but in case your trafficker is.
So be careful out there.
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