SP asking merb to remove there reviews ?

[Giselle Montreal]

You can read about it here :

https://www.pace-society.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/319466_6d9267a6d4a2434e98cf2ac6a788d350.pdf

Sex Workers Are Being Detained at the US Border | Novara Media

Vague and discriminatory laws can bar sex workers from entering the US, but they’re inconsistently applied. Sophie K Rosa reports.

novaramedia.com

Sex Workers’ Social Media Scrutinized at US/Canada Border - Cyborgology

The Society Pages (TSP) is an open-access social science project headquartered in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota

thesocietypages.org

Sex life: I fear being stopped at the US border, so I'll never visit

It’s difficult to predict who will be put on a watchlist and why. I’d prefer not to take the risk

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk

Sex Workers Are Being Detained and Deported At The US Border. Ad Sites Are Concerned It's Facial Recognition Software

Jake Hall investigates the rising claims of detainment at the US border by sex workers and the potential links to AI and facial recognition.

cashmeremag.com

https://twitter.com/x/status/1700248936777400352

https://twitter.com/x/status/799294236059430913

https://twitter.com/x/status/1568537610691166209

https://twitter.com/x/status/1612125700278071296

https://twitter.com/x/status/1751966550129570159

And there's more.

 

[One Last Caress]

I have had SPs mention having difficulty traveling from Canada to the US and having someone even go through their phone.

As for requesting not to be reviewed, some SPs have indicated that the reviews can be mean spirited and provide too much information, which I empathize with. Though my experience in life in general is that when someone or a company prevents reviews, it usually means things aren't up to snuff.

 

[Fradi]

I have never heard of a client being banned because he is a Merb member.
I don’t see how they can possibly find that out unless he has some other shady issues and they look in his phone.( I always clean my phone and its cache)
Most probably there were much more serious reasons than being on Merb.

As far as SP being rejected that is very common and very true. It is illegal to work in the states without a visa and approval and this is the reason they get banned. They do not believe SP are just going across to visit friends or for leisure. Sucks for the ladies that get caught I can really sympathize with them.

Even I got hassled a few times and I worked for a company where there were literally 50-100 of us going across the border to the US daily for meetings ,audits and contract negotiations. We were actually giving work and money to the US.and our parent company was from the US. Most border guards just waived us through as soon as we mentioned who we worked for but occasionally there was a self centred prick who just enjoyed to hassle you. I was sent a few times to secondary and there they just asked why are you here who sent you and when I told them they just said oh yeah their facial expression saying it all.
It always ended with have a nice day enjoy your visit,

 

[Lunaseraphim]

You can read about it here :

https://www.pace-society.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/319466_6d9267a6d4a2434e98cf2ac6a788d350.pdf

Sex Workers Are Being Detained at the US Border | Novara Media

Vague and discriminatory laws can bar sex workers from entering the US, but they’re inconsistently applied. Sophie K Rosa reports.

novaramedia.com

Sex Workers’ Social Media Scrutinized at US/Canada Border - Cyborgology

The Society Pages (TSP) is an open-access social science project headquartered in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota

thesocietypages.org

Sex life: I fear being stopped at the US border, so I'll never visit

It’s difficult to predict who will be put on a watchlist and why. I’d prefer not to take the risk

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk

Sex Workers Are Being Detained and Deported At The US Border. Ad Sites Are Concerned It's Facial Recognition Software

Jake Hall investigates the rising claims of detainment at the US border by sex workers and the potential links to AI and facial recognition.

cashmeremag.com

https://twitter.com/x/status/1700248936777400352

https://twitter.com/x/status/799294236059430913

https://twitter.com/x/status/1568537610691166209

https://twitter.com/x/status/1612125700278071296

https://twitter.com/x/status/1751966550129570159

And there's more.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this

 

[Lunaseraphim]

Though my experience in life in general is that when someone or a company prevents reviews, it usually means things aren't up to snuff.

Being a SP isn't the same as having a company or another type of business. The reasons why people don't want to be reviewed are clear.

 

[One Last Caress]

Being a SP isn't the same as having a company or another type of business. The reasons why people don't want to be reviewed are clear.

Not the same, but similar concept, this is ultimately a business. If someone indicates they don't like reviews, I abide by that and respect one's privacy.

Reviews allow clients to find the best match for what they are seeking and allows clients to avoid being in a negative situation. As long as they are not mean spirited or overly detailed, I think they are totally appropriate.

 

[neverbored]

wondering if they're also getting data from OF (+other sites) and twitter (Musk) to cross reference IDs. Hell, even access to trucaller would be a goldmine for them.

With new AI image search systems like lenso.ai , reverse searching is now open to not just searching for duplicate images, but facial recognition within them. This stuff available to the public is getting pretty powerful, can't imagine what tools border agents have access to.

Also probably doesn't help that sites like here have reviews open to be indexed by search engines without having to create an account. Just matching phone numbers and websites would probably be enough to build a pretty large database for them.

Add all the picture stealing in B&S ads is bound to also become an issue... curious to see if non SWs who have had their pictures used start getting identified as SWs.

 

[Giselle Montreal]

Add all the picture stealing in B&S ads is bound to also become an issue... curious to see if non SWs who have had their pictures used start getting identified as SWs.

It happened, and will happen more and more. People don't care about sex workers, but what happens to us influence what will happen to the general population. We are all living in the same society, after all.

US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile | Xtra Magazine

What non-Americans can do to protect their privacy at the border

xtramagazine.com

"A Vancouver man was denied entry into the United States after a US Customs and Border Patrol officer read his profiles on the gay hookup app Scruff and the website BBRT.

The officer suspected the man was a sex worker because he found messages from the man saying he was “looking for loads,” and assumed it meant he was soliciting sex for cash."

 

[NFLMEL]

"A Vancouver man was denied entry into the United States after a US Customs and Border Patrol officer read his profiles on the gay hookup app Scruff and the website BBRBBRT

One would think he would use a different name.

 

[neverbored]

One would think he would use a different name.

unless I missed it, the article didn't say he used the same name. They searched his phone and saw messages.

 

[NFLMEL]

unless I missed it, the article didn't say he used the same name. They searched his phone and saw messages.

I assumed the boarder patrol checked these sites but not from his phone.

 

[Mandouke]

Border guards going through a person's cell phone is nothing new. They do it all the time with unsuspecting and naive people crossing the border.

Some people are not very smart when they travel and their history, text messages, photos and contacts among other things are there for the officers to view.

Many a person has been denied entry on that alone as well as even arrested when the contents of their phones are not in line with the laws of the country being entered.

 

[Giselle Montreal]

@NFLMEL It says it in the article.

"André says he was planning to visit his boyfriend, who was working in New Orleans. But when he was going through Customs preclearance at Vancouver airport last October, he was selected for secondary inspection, where an officer took his phone, computer and other possessions, and demanded the passwords for his devices. “I didn’t know what to do. I was scared, so I gave them the password and then I sat there for at least an hour or two. I missed my flight,” André says. “He came back and just started grilling me. ‘Is this your email?’ and it was an email attached to a Craigslist account for sex ads. He asked me, ‘Is this your account on Scruff? Is this you on BBRT?’ I was like, ‘Yes, this is me.’”

We don't use our real names yet they manage to link, and with success on multiple occasions, an online provider's profile to her real name and passport, even before they search her things and phone. They usually have all the information before her arrival at the airport. A username doesn't protect you from anything.

 

[NFLMEL]

@NFLMEL It says it in the article.

Teaches me to read the entire article, I stopped at the advertising gap figured that was it.

 

[MCTJ]

We don't use our real names yet they manage to link, and with success on multiple occasions, an online provider's profile to her real name and passport, even before they search her things and phone. They usually have all the information before her arrival at the airport. A username doesn't protect you from anything.

Even without showing your face online?

 

[themonk83]

Even without showing your face online?

Even without showing your face. Plenty of stories about SW getting denied entry or outright ban yet never shown face.

Some decided to show their faces after such traumatic experience

 

[Giselle Montreal]

Even without showing your face. Plenty of stories about SW getting denied entry or outright ban yet never shown face.

Some always showed their face and were never stopped at the border, so we can't pinpoint what gives us away.

 

[neverbored]

Some always showed their face and were never stopped at the border, so we can't pinpoint what gives us away.

or... just haven't been flagged yet. You don't even need full face pics to build a usable recognition profile.

"Tell me who you know, and I'll tell you who you are" / guilty by association, combine behaviour with social media engagement pods its just a question of time before it gets automated with higher success rate.

I will also say, that many girls when traveling give off a pretty strong SW vibe. They broder agents don't need proof... they just need suspiscion.
Wearing expensive brands, huge boobs, bbl, overly sexy, frequent flyer (without Nexus), economy class, nonstop texting/selfies, surely more than enough without even facial recognition to be "randomly" selected. Not saying all SW are flashy, but I do think that many flashy girls could easily attract unwanted attention.

 

[Wearethenight]

Border guards going through a person's cell phone is nothing new. They do it all the time with unsuspecting and naive people crossing the border.

Some people are not very smart when they travel and their history, text messages, photos and contacts among other things are there for the officers to view.

Many a person has been denied entry on that alone as well as even arrested when the contents of their phones are not in line with the laws of the country being entered.

Happened to me once, it's not fun and quite nerve racking, thank God I was smart about it, deleted my dating apps and accounts,insta, VPN app etc, dirty text messages and thankfully no nudes. They looked through my photos too and would ask me questions about specific photos ,( lots of festival pics) but did not question me on my pet bunny pictures or videos.

 

[cpp433]

SP's are well within their rights to request a "no review policy" for whatever reason. And as clients, you can infer whatever reason you wish, and make decisions based on those assumptions. It's pretty simple really.

And we are well within our rights to comment on it and discuss it as we wish, its pretty simple really