Sex Work Discrimination Continues As EROS Gets Raided By The Us Federal Government

Admin | 2017. December 12. - 08:09

Last Tuesday was a dark day for professional escorts and companions registered with the US-based escort website EROS. The Department of Homeland Security, armed with a sealed warrant, performed a major raid on EROS’s center in North Carolina. They took everything including escort profiles and databases. The raid began on Tuesday, November 7, at 10:30 am and continued till late at night.

The former employees expressed confidence those servers contained personal information of clients, including names, credit card numbers, pictures and other personal data, validating the fears expressed by several industry insiders.

While arrests and charges are yet to be made, many escorts who advertised on the website are stressed and scared out of their skins. Their data and personal info are now in the hands of the of the US federals and that screams bad news since all States in the US have laws against sex work, with the exception of Nevada of course.

EROS has for a very long time been one of the leading escort advertising websites, since 1995 when the platform was launched many US adult entertainers have been using it to advertise and promote their services. With their data and privacy beached as a result of this EROS raid, most of these entertainers are scared. They do not know if the platform is going to be taken down, their personal identities exposed or even be forced to shut down their businesses.

What is worrying most entertainers is that this is not the first time such a raid has occurred, last year many US-based adult entertainment websites were shut down. Then popular websites like myredbook were shut down and many entertainers were left with no work and no place to advertise. The current uncertainty surrounding EROS and other US-based escort ad platforms has left many US escorts wondering if their businesses will be around for much longer.

This stance on adult entertainment by the US government is deemed a discrimination of profession by many people. In fact, questions have been raised on how the US is ok with the production and distribution of porn but shuns a dark light on sex work. Porn is being promoted everywhere and anyway, but sex workers are still being deprived of the right to entertain.

European countries differ a lot from the US, in Europe, sex work is legal and escorts can even register their businesses just like any other profession. The solution right now for US-based escorts is to advertise with websites that are based in countries where sex work is legal. This will ensure that their personal data is protected and their businesses are not affected by raids such as the one that hit EROS last Tuesday.

Adult advertising platforms like Escort-Ads are European based companies with lots of US traffic. This means that a US escort can advertise on sites like Escort-Ads and maintain their businesses without being at risk with the Department of Homeland Security. Advertising on sites that are far from the US’s jurisdiction provides a level of security that the US escorts desperately need right now. It is not fair that escorts are being prohibited from entertaining while porn stars are being celebrated. In order to avoid confrontations with the US law, the best option is to advertise on non-US based websites and to use cryptocurrencies as a payment medium.

Why Escort-Ads is safe for US escorts

Escort-Ads is based in Europe and has structures in place that act to protect anyone who uses the website especially the escorts. When registering with Escort-Ads, no IDs are collect, escorts are not obliged to verify their profiles but those who do choose to verify their profiles all verification information is immediately deleted from the servers and no backups are kept. It is the best way to ensure that escorts are SAFE and can run their businesses without having to worry about a possible breach of data. We are cautious about how we encrypt and store the data, we do not give out ANY information to third party companies, especially not for a company based in the US, so there is no chance data can be taken from us. We were just updating our servers, and to protect you and your data even better we were migrating some data to a new hosting, where not only the servers are offshore (in Amsterdam, because the Netherlands has long been a leader in the battle for privacy and data protection) but all connected companies as well, so like this no data will be accessible in any way.

What happened to EROS is sad and a step backward for the adult entertainment community. Everyone involved in this very important industry longs to see the day that sex work will be decriminalized in the US.

Comments
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This is major! Wow I'm so glad I never uploaded my profile on Eros! Are there any other sites affiliated with Eros that providers should shy away from?
just recently I read that eros was connected to another company that is being investigated as mob connections.And it was just a company that invested in their company . They did not even know the company has mob ties. So now it makes it worse for anyone with profiles on this Eros site. Eros was such a great site for so many years.