How to Keep Yourself Safe Online as a Sex Worker: Snapchat
Alright everyone listen up. I have a day job in IT security and I consider Myself to be fairly tech savvy. As such I started this series – originally on TikTok – now being transcribed onto My personal, for a new audience’s viewing pleasure. There are lots of creeps out there, let Me help keep you safe!
This blog post was inspired by a Twitter mutual who was horrified that Snapchat was recommending her phone contacts her premium Snapchat account and was so confused because she didn’t give her premium Snapchat access to her phone contacts. So, what happened?
Basically, Snapchat and most apps have two levels of permissions: permissions from the settings app on the phone and permission from the app itself. Most sex workers I know have two snaps, a vanilla one for personal use and a work/premium one. This is where the problem arises. When you first sign into Snapchat on your personal account you are prompted to give Snapchat access to your contacts. Most people do because we want to find our friends. This original prompt changes the settings app on your phone; when you sign out of your personal Snapchat and into your premium Snapchat, the premium Snapchat account pulls the permissions from the settings app on your phone and sees that it has access to the contacts on your phone. Therefore it starts syncing your contacts EVEN IF YOU DECLINED THE PROMPT FOR YOUR PREMIUM SNAPCHAT TO HAVE ACCESS TO YOUR CONTACTS.
Have you given contact permissions to Snap and now want them gone so this doesn’t happen to you? It’s an easy fix.
To remedy the In the Snapchat app go to profile, then settings, scroll to “Account Settings” and turn contact syncing off. If you have already permitted Snapchat access to your contacts you can remove those contacts from your premium Snapchat.
To stop contact syncing on your device it varies slightly per device.
IF YOU HAVE AN iPHONE:
instructions may vary slightly by phone model and iOS version
Go to the settings app, tap privacy, hit the contact permission setting, then disable it for Snapchat. While there, you might as well toggle it off for all other sex work apps you use. You can also use the “Safety Check” feature to manage who can see your accounts. To double check that contact sharing is turned off, scroll down the settings app until you reach Snapchat, tap it, and verify that it is not allowed to access your contacts.
IF YOU HAVE AN ANDROID:
instructions may vary slightly by phone model and OS version
Go to the settings app, scroll to privacy, tap permissions manager, tap contacts, tap Snapchat, and toggle it to denied. While you’re in the contacts section of the permissions manager you might as well toggle it off for all other sex work related apps you use.
When you turn off contact sharing in both places Snapchat will no longer be able to recommend your premium account to your phone contacts. Go forth and post smut.