I thought this might make a useful thread as others can add suggestions. Or not.
Yes, using your actual everyday phone is a risk, but for some of us a second phone is itself dangerous as it would be hard to explain if found. eSIMs are on the horizon but not yet available (as of October 2018) - when available, you’ll be able to have two numbers on one iPhone, which may or may not be useful for punting security. (Dual-SIM Android phones are available.)
Prevent text messages showing previews on the lock screen: Settings, Notifications, scroll down to Messages, Show Previews, Never. You can do the same for WhatsApp etc. Obviously you have already given any escort contact an innocent name like IT Helpdesk or PPI Marketing or something, and you delete them when you don’t need them any more. (I set the ‘Company’ field for escorts to the Peach emoji, but maybe that’s risky.)
If you have a Mac, the desktop Messages app will show all your text conversations with no way to hide the sender panel, which of course is a great feature until it isn’t. On iPhone, go to Settings, Messages, Text Message Forwarding, uncheck. (I really wish you could do this per contact or group.)
Download a separate browser app for AW etc, and put it in a separate group (‘Web’ or some such) off the home page, and preferably on the second page of the group. I’ve found Ghostery pretty good but there are loads of others. Then, go to Settings, ‘Siri & Search’, scroll down to the settings for the app and uncheck ‘Search, Suggestions & Shortcuts’. This will avoid some
External Link/Members Only moments where your AW username pops up in a text message to your wife. I know Safari’s Private mode does all of this, but a separate app is harder to get mixed up and just feels safer.
Make sure you at least minimise the app before closing the phone, to avoid hilarity when paying for a coffee.
Facebook: yes it’s an evil data harvesting doomsday machine, but it’s also nice for sharing your cat photos so there’s that. Anyway, from the iPhone app go to settings (bottom right of home page as of October 2018), Settings & Privacy, Personal Information, Upload Contacts, uncheck that. (Otherwise you can get interesting insights into the social media profiles of WGs who use their own phones, and it’s a bugger to delete an auto-uploaded contact from Messenger.) Also hide your contact details: Facebook app, Settings, Privacy settings, Manage your profile, Contact info, set to ‘Only me’ or whatever you feel comfortable with that isn’t sharing it with the whole world.
Watch out when copying any URL, as the next time you open any any web-related app it will spot it in the clipboard and offer to post it publicly (Facebook, Twitter), or do whatever else the app does. For this reason when looking for a profile on UKP it’s safer to copy just the number (and AW URLs appear in a couple of different formats so the number is more reliable anyway).
(Settings sometimes move around with iOS/app updates so some of the above may need a bit of interpretation in the future.)
