Melanie Ehrenkranz is a writer who’s been featured in Gizmodo, Vice’s Motherboard, Medium’s OneZero blog and more. This article is part of our Privacy Not Included buyers guide for 2021. Follow her work and check out more from Privacy Not Included here.
It’s old news at this point that internet-connected sex toys can pose a security threat. But smart sex toys aren’t going away. In fact, they’re being introduced to new communities in the OnlyFans era we live in. Webcam models can now hand over the reigns to these devices to paying customers. And on the flip side, viewers are able to sync up their own device to a model’s.
It’s also old news that sexy times are limited to corporeal pleasures—I mean, people were typing out erotic art with the ASCII character set as far back as the 70s. With advances in both hardware and software over the last few decades, and most recently, as teledildonics were introduced into bedrooms by way of cam model content, these sexy times have gotten a lot more realistic. They’ve also gotten a lot more vulnerable to security issues. (A nude made out of plus and dollar signs on an old mobile phone isn’t rife with a lot of intimate personal data.)
As we’re relinquishing a new kind of remote control and participation to viewers, it’s worth better understanding the privacy considerations in the latest sexy tech frontier.
“The impact severity of that can be much higher than that of a light bulb or microwave or vacuum or another generic IoT device,” Daly Barnett, a staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), said. “Perhaps then with that kind of context in mind, it might be worthwhile for the person to make a threat model specifically tied to their sex lives.”
Barnett said that it’s fair to say that many people live in relatively sex negative cultures, and so a digital invasion of privacy when it comes to their sexual behaviors and preferences might be a lot more distressing than someone hacking into your smart toaster oven.
You have a right to a private digital sex life
Threat modeling is a process often linked to IT professionals, but it’s a technique that anyone can use to figure out what the possible security risks are and how severe the consequences of those vulnerabilities would be for anyone impacted. It’s about looking at how not only you might be exposed to harm, but the other individuals, businesses, or organizations that might be caught in that ripple effect.
And to get into that headspace, you’ll want to remember that you have a right to privacy. Tech giants and other businesses are resistant to that foundational tenet because it’s less profitable for them, so you’ll also want to look at the people behind the services and devices you are using.
For instance, if the manufacturer or provider of a remote-controlled dildo has a reputation for shady data collecting practices or weak responses to security vulnerabilities, you might not want to hand over data like how often you log onto a cam model’s site or what thrusting option you prefer.
You can also look at things like the language a company uses, their policies, and how they address privacy concerns when choosing the devices and businesses you quite literally fuck with.
How to mentally visualize the risks
Barnett said that her favorite way to address cybersecurity concerns with people is to first turn to the nontechnical solutions first, because it can be easier to conceptualize things that way. So you’re going to use a high-tech, remotely-controlled male masturbator. Do you have to share factual information to use it? Does it need to be connected with everything (or anything) else you own, or are you able to pare it down to only the essentials?
“Don’t be coerced into providing all the information it asks of you, maybe consider to just give it the bare minimum of what it needs to function,” Barnett said, adding that you should also consider what information you are handing over to a device or a platform, and from there, you can dive into the more technical aspects. Like, does your rabbit vibrator that can connect to video chat really need to connect to Facebook to work as intended (getting you off)? Probably not.
As for some technical precautions you can take, Barnett cited beefing up your network security and adding some virtual evasion technologies like a VPN (virtual private network). This will keep your sexier online activities relegated to a more discrete and contained environment.
Think about your community
When you look at your threat model, it shouldn’t just be about how you might be impacted by a privacy violation, intentional or otherwise. For those with the mentality of, “I have nothing to hide”, even when it comes to digital pleasures, your active participation or consumption involves other people. In this case, it could involve other viewers tuning into the same platform as you, the cam models you are engaging with, someone sharing the network you’re connected to. It’s not just about preserving your own privacy.
“I always say when I give security or privacy trainings to people, your privacy or cybersecurity hygiene is imbricated with everyone else’s in your community, so if you care about the people you interact with, it is in their and your best interest to up your digital hygiene standards,” Barnett said. “It’s not a far stretch to extend that incident to everyone on the network.”
Digital hygiene over nihilism
It’s not just remotely controlling someone’s orgasm, doing anything online has an inherent risk. But, for individuals and communities that depend on privacy in order to explore their sex lives, an unintentional data leak can be especially devastating.
When it comes to “expressing sexual freedom and autonomy,” Barnett said, “whatever we can do to further that agenda is best, it’s just about being mindful, weighing the risks, and finding safer alternatives.”
Having conversations around digital hygiene with regards to freely navigating your sex life online shouldn’t stoke nihilistic fears, it should be about giving users autonomy. And also, asking more from the gatekeepers.
Expect better from the businesses building your sex tech
It’s ultimately a balance of pushing the sex tech industry to do better while also giving users agency. Barnett pointed out that internet-connected devices are often overlooked when it comes to cybersecurity hygiene, and that they also might call for a more expert technical savvy of the user.
That involves transparency both in the terms of service and the privacy policy. What’s more, users should always have to opt out to protect their privacy rather than opt in. Businesses should be compliant with current privacy regulations, and there should be equity of community guidelines enforcement.
“I like it to be easy, so the more devices that are made by businesses who have lazy and complacent ways of addressing cybersecurity that an individual incorporates into their sex life can be pretty devastating,” Barnett said, adding that there is “a lot of room for concern there.”
At the end of the day, even in non-pandemic times, there’s going to be an active community of users and sex workers who turn to the internet to get someone off. Sending vibrations from miles away is pretty cool, as is exploring sexual fantasies in a more interactive way. But as the erotic content creator culture continues to explode, everyone is better off understanding the privacy risks of building those intimate relationships online.
This post is part of our Privacy Not Included series. Check out the entire guide here.