We’re living in a time when “free” on the internet often comes with hidden costs. Most platforms—social media, streaming, and messaging—say they’re free. But behind that zero price, companies make money by capturing our attention, predicting what we want, and tracking what we do. Even private chats are now used for targeted ads.
Meta recently confirmed that chats with its new “Meta AI” assistant on Facebook and Instagram will be used to shape the ads we see. Think about that for a second: what you say to a program that’s meant to feel like a private helper is actually treated like any other commercial data point. There’s no opt-out, and no distinction between intimacy and ad signal.
The Adult Web Shows the Problem, and a Possible Fix
If any part of the digital world understands the stakes of privacy, it’s the adult creator economy. “Free-first” cam and livestreaming sites can be overrun by:
- Spam bots pretending to be real people
- Stolen or AI-generated personas
- Data harvesting disguised as entertainment
The wider internet reflects this shift, where automated traffic accounts for a significant portion of what we perceive as ‘real’ online activity. As performer Jenna Lee shares, ‘I used to feel like I was connecting with real fans, but now it’s hard to tell if I’m talking to a bot or a human. It feels crowded and superficial.’ Such lived experiences highlight the overcrowded, inauthentic spaces where human connection feels like the exception rather than the rule.
This is where the platform Flirtbate makes a provocative argument about the adult chat industry:
If you’re paying for intimacy online, shouldn’t privacy come included?
Instead of pushing performers toward maximum visibility and ad-friendly engagement, Flirtbate emphasises one-to-one connections, encrypted interactions, and transparency about data usage. The idea is simple: the people involved, not the algorithms, decide what they see.
It’s a shift away from “perform for the masses” and toward consensual digital intimacy.
The Rise of AI Impersonators
The pressure to scale is affecting reality in creator spaces. Agencies now deploy AI clones of models to handle fan DMs. Face-swapped “pimping” networks scrape creators’ photos and identities and flood platforms like Instagram. Some viewers don’t even realise they’re interacting with a robot pretending to be someone else.
We now live in a world where a person’s likeness can be faked as easily as it can be protected.
And while lawmakers scramble to respond, tech platforms move faster.
Privacy That You Actually Own
Across various industries, including gaming, social networking, and dating platforms, new identity verification measures are being introduced, such as ID uploads and facial recognition scans. These measures may prevent minors from accessing harmful content. But they also create vast new pools of biometric data that could be misused, breached, or sold.
When everything is tracked, nothing feels intimate.
Flirtbate’s pitch lands here: privacy shouldn’t be optional. It shouldn’t be a luxury add-on. It shouldn’t be something we trade away for convenience, especially not in vulnerable or intimate contexts.
When you transition from a model that focuses on mass viewership and engagement to one that prioritises high-quality, one-on-one shared experiences, everything changes.
What People Actually Want Online
At our core, humans aren’t looking for infinite digital crowds. We’re searching for the same thing we always have:
Connection. Recognition. Safety. Autonomy.
Somewhere along the way, the promise of the internet got turned on its head. We were told that openness, endless content, endless visibility, endless “free” options, were the path to freedom. But now, many are realising that freedom online means the opposite:
Not being watched. Being able to close the curtains on other users and bots alike, and connecting more authentically.
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