Sex Worker Search

EscortCrush, a Miami-first directory for independent providers, kindly agreed to this interview and I was able to confirm via a video selfie that a member of the Escortcrush team, Marie, is a sex worker. I’m always happy to share the good news when sex workers build platforms for sex workers. The existing escort directories are almost universally lazy and incompetent in terms of their customer service (or absence thereof) and I am very concerned about the prevailing cavalier attitude towards our safety and privacy that I see with directories demanding our identity documents and biometric selfies and then not taking any responsibility for securing our identities from the possibility of hacks or raids. There is zero evidence that they won’t just sell our identities to spammers and scammers or hand over our ID to the feds in deals to protect themselves. I live in hope that provider led platforms like Escortcrush might do better.

(To be continued. I’ll add ECs responses once I receive them)

1) I agree with you that there’s a severe deficit in mutual trust in our industry. I’m a moderator on the /r/sexworkers subreddit and every day I see posts indicating that clients mistrust the ads they’re seeing on directories on the assumption that many ads are using stolen or AI generated pics for deposit scams or pretending to be available for in person meets in order to direct traffic to content sales like Onlyfans. On the other side every sex worker walks the delicate balancing act that is a screening protocol rigorous enough to keep us safe from meeting dangerous clients and avoids us getting arrested in countries where our work is illegal but at the same time is not so rigorous as to deter too many genuine clients. When you talk about sharing the screening burden, how do you account for the unequal risks, and how do your two-way reviews protect workers?

You suggested a conversation about building trust “without putting all of the screening burden on one side.” What do you mean by that? From my perspective as a sex worker, screening is a safety measure. The consequences of meeting a dangerous client can be fatal. Making clients more comfortable with screening is a priority but this cannot come at the expense of our safety.

Client reviews can disclose services, locations or identifying details that a worker never agreed to make public. They can also contain lies, or be threatened as a way to try to haggle, push boundaries or punish a refusal. How do you prevent those harms? Are reviews written comments, star ratings, meeting confirmations or a combination, and can workers opt out without losing visibility? Can someone review a worker who declined a booking, and what happens when a worker reports a threat or retaliatory review?

In the other direction, who can see a worker’s review of a client? Confidential safety reports need different protections from public testimonials. Exposing a report could identify the worker, provoke retaliation or compel a dangerous client to change their contact details. Do you distinguish public references from restricted worker-to-worker safety information, and what does mutual confirmation that a meeting happened actually establish?

2) How does your messaging system work?

More private communication is an attractive possibility. I do question how private something like Whatsapp is given that it may claim to be end to end encrypted but ultimately, it’s owned by Meta, with every motive, and a track record of, spying on their users. But my experience with directory inboxes has been that they generate a very high proportion of timewasting enquiries due to the low effort, high speed, anonymous, non intentional nature of web messages. People who visit my own website and then contact me by my preferred channels tend to be much better informed about my services, rates and boundaries and much more likely to show up/ less likely to just try to engage in pointless chat with zero intention of meeting. I guess because someone who clicks from an ad, to my site, to my contact page, maybe via my bio, gallery, rates etc, has already far exceeded the average 0.4 second attention span of someone who clicks on the message button on a directory.

How have sex workers’ experiences shaped your messaging system? Can providers disable the inbox, direct clients to their own website or preferred contact method, and filter enquiries without being penalised in search? Can they prominently link their own websites and socials, and would you consider a “has own website” filter?

3) How do your privacy promises translate into what Escortcrush collects, shares and makes accessible?

A developer who reviewed EscortCrush reported that Google tracking scripts appeared to load before consent. I haven’t independently verified that observation. Which analytics or tracking services do you use, what information do they receive, and what happens before a visitor makes a choice or after they decline?

4) Is EscortCrush vibe-coded?

On the development side, how much, if any, of EscortCrush was built using AI-generated code?

Beyond coding, where do you use AI: for verification, moderation, support or content? What user information reaches AI providers, can it be retained or used for training, and can workers obtain human review when an automated decision affects their account?

5) Why do you require identity documents and biometric face matching, and would you consider third-party double-blind verification instead?

Your FAQ says providers must submit a valid ID, a verification video and a handwritten note, and complete biometric face matching. Who performs those checks, what documents, recordings or biometric templates are retained, and for how long, including in backups and after account deletion? Can unnecessary ID details be redacted?

I’ve written about third-party double-blind verification, https://sexworkersear.ch/2026/07/25/third-party-double-blind/ where the directory receives a verifiable proof of adulthood without receiving someone’s legal identity, and the verifier doesn’t know what the proof is being used for. Would you consider piloting that approach, alongside less intrusive checks that someone controls their advert and photos? If you believe you must retain identity or biometric records, which specific legal or operational requirements make that necessary?

I’m paraphrasing but your privacy policy https://escortcrush.com/privacy says “we might get hacked or raided and your facial biometrics, ID and private data linked to sex work could get doxxed all over the internet and into the databases of every government and law enforcement agency on the planet in perpetuity. You could get arrested, or deported, or put on no fly lists, or blocked from entry at border controls, or fired from your civ job, or fail all future civ job applications whenever someone does a biometric search for your face and finds evidence of sex work and if any of that happens, too bad, we accept zero responsibility. Also we’ll share your ID with whoever we want (eg hosting, network services, and technical service providers) and if they get hacked or raided, or sell your data, also, too bad, not our problem.”

That’s what all the escort directories say in their privacy policies.

Is that really the best we can do? Isn’t third-party double-blind verification a better way?