The types of corporate software that allow your employer to monitor your computer or phone use and control it remotely are the bane of many work-from-homers existence. At minimum, apps like TeamViewer and AnyDesk ensure that employees don’t have any excuse not to be connected to their workplace, regardless of where they are or what device they’re using. There’s really nothing sexy about it — unless you’re into that sort of thing. And according to the various kinksters into blackmail, cyber domination or sharing their sex life with others, such software has offered new ways of being horny online.
Across Reddit, you can find hundreds of classified listings from people of all genders, orientations and sexual preferences looking for others to play with on TeamViewer, AnyDesk, Join.Me and similar tools used primarily for working from home. Again, these programs, as they’re advertised, allow for workers to share their screen with other people from their company and log in to workplace specific software from any computer, among other WFH needs. They can also be used by employers to control what their employees have access to, or monitor what they’re doing, typically with the employees’ knowledge.
But among those who use the programs for kink purposes (a basic subscription generally runs $7 to $10 a month), they become a means of obtaining privileged information, controlling bank accounts and social media and/or sharing nudes and porn.
On r/CyberDom and r/BlackmailKink many are looking for dommes willing to consensually use these programs to enforce a sort of extreme “parental control” type of restriction over their tech, while others are looking for a hacker experience. “m4m 26 looking for dom to download/collect and use pics to expose me everywhere,” one recent listing reads. “looking for sick people to infect my PC,” another pleads. Meanwhile, on r/AnyDeskWives, there are husbands looking to have pictures and videos of their wife “exposed” by AnyDesk users, potentially without her consent. “Looking to show off your gf/wife/slut to a stranger?” a post asks. “Exhibitionism get your rocks off? If you want me to enjoy what secrets you have on your phone or pc… send me a PM.” Rather than merely sending these men their wife’s photos, though, they have them remotely access their entire phone, providing complete control over the content.
Beyond the murky instances where someone’s consent may have been breached, the use of these programs tends to be just another means of exerting control in a dominant/submissive dynamic. Particularly in the case of something as fundamental as our phones, seeing someone snoop through our photos, access our apps and change our passwords is about as controlling as you can get in the digital sphere.
It’s ironic, then, that the same technology that people are sexualizing as a sort of digital panopticon is what thousands of companies use to streamline the WFH process. It’s almost enough to make going into the office sound less invasive.
Magdalene Taylor
Magdalene Taylor is a staff writer at MEL. She covers internet culture, sex and the online adult industry. She lives in Brooklyn but is from God's Country, Western Massachusetts.
