Once again, Big Tech is endangering sex workers. It’s a common theme when it comes to tech companies these days. So, what is it this time?
How has Amazon’s Wishlist changed its Terms of Service?
Amazon’s recent changes to their Wishlist feature have the potential to harm sex workers, victims of domestic violence and other forms of abuse, and well, everyone. On March 25 this year, Amazon removed the option to block Wishlist purchases from their third-party sellers, meaning from March 25, someone buying you a Wishlist item could receive or obtain your address. Previously, you could go into settings and select the option to not allow purchases from third parties. That meant that the only party who had your address was Amazon itself. Following these changes, if someone buys something on your Wishlist from a third-party seller, that seller is given your address to send the item to you. Big deal, you might say. It’s only some random seller! But here’s the problem…
How does Amazon’s new Wishlist policy affect sex workers?
When the third-party seller sends shipping updates to the buyer, that update may include information like your name and address. And if the delivery driver takes a photo of the delivered parcel on your doorstep the buyer may be able to see this too. Fuck.
What does Amazon say about the safety concerns?
Amazon’s approach so far to safety concerns around the change has been to advise Wishlist holders to use a PO box or non-residential address. But these options are not accessible to everyone. PO boxes cost money, and many people don’t have access to a non-residential address to have their packages shipped to. It’s also a problem for those who don’t know about these changes, whether they have missed the email that Amazon sent, or just haven’t checked their settings lately.
There’s no way to opt out of this, except to keep your Wishlist private—which means you can’t share it with your fans or followers, rendering it useless. What’s the point of having a Wishlist if no one can see it?
Not only does this change in policy put sex workers in danger, but it might also leave journalists, commentators, LGBTQIA+ people or victims of abuse vulnerable to having their residential addresses revealed. Abusers are known to be crafty, and can use this change to their advantage, gaming the system in order to harass, stalk, and intimidate their victims—or worse.
What can we do about it?
In response, sex workers and influencers are moving to Throne, another wishlist provider, but this has its own issues. Throne’s policies expressly mention restrictions on using the service for sex-work-related activities, specifically “Not Safe For Work (NSFW), sexual, and/or adult services/performances/content.” While that doesn’t necessarily mean that sex workers can’t receive gifts through their platform, the vagueness of the policy could be weaponised to close sex worker accounts. Throne also uses Stripe, a payment processor whose terms of use explicitly prohibit adult content and services, and has been widely reported to have terminated accounts linked to sex work—even where no explicit content was involved.
Sex workers began voicing their concerns on social media as soon as the changes to Amazon’s Wishlist were announced, warning everyone about the potential for abuse and harm. Too often the pattern is familiar—we become the “canary in the coal mine” when it comes to Big Tech’s failures—the policies that harm us often go on to harm everyone else.
When Big Tech makes changes like this without considering the safety of all of their users, they show us once more how little they care for us as humans—and as sex workers. We are everywhere. So why should we have to contend with changes to tech policy that put us and other communities in danger?
For more on Big Tech and sex work, see Sluts for Security: Excessive Data Collection & How It Impacts You and What is Shadowbanning and How Does it Affect Sex Workers?
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