Remember all those FetLife privacy problems? They’re still problems.

Anaiis Flox has a new feature over on the Slantist today titled, “You Can Browse FetLife Profiles Without Logging In.” I’ll suggest an alternate title: “Everything maymay said about FetLife years ago is still true.”

The article also has a brief summary of some history only long-time readers of mine are likely to remember:

This is a replay of an incident that occurred two years ago when a FetLife user created a PHP proxy to illustrate the issues with FetLife’s insufficient concern for user privacy. The user, known online as maymay, had been a long-time critic of FetLife’s inconsistent approach to user safety, and was one of the loudest voices rallying for the use of cryptographic protocols at login (which FetLife finally adopted in 2011).

The proxy maymay created in the summer of 2012 accessed FetLife and made the profiles of public individuals in the BDSM community available to people outside the network. It took no time for this proxy to be coded, and even less for it to get to work, illustrating how false people’s sense of security really is on the kinky network. Because this was an activism project, maymay widely publicized what they were doing; unfortunately, FetLife refused to face the underlying issue, choosing instead to launch a campaign accusing maymay of hacking the site and endangering its users.

Since “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” and “any sufficiently technical expert is indistinguishable from a witch,” FetLife chose to address their piss-poor security by pointing at me and shouting, “WITCH! WITCH!” And since the BDSM community has the social and technological competence of a Monty Python movie, most people reflexively shouted “BURN HIM!”

By the way, the PHP proxy still works.

So then I created Predator Alert Tool for FetLife, and when I presented it at a conference, the typical response from these “feminist sex-positive consent activists” was to point at me and shout “RAPIST! RAPIST!”

This should be one of those “pay attention to what they do, not what they say moments.” You don’t even need to look that closely to notice that the kink/BDSM community isn’t trying to end rape culture; they’re trying to eroticize it.

See also:

• FetLife lies. Like, a LOT.
• Got Consent? FetLife Doesn’t Get It
• National BDSM public relations group admits to mishandling $60,000 worth of individual donations, and maymay called it.