🔗 Share this article Transitioning from Professional Dominatrix to Technology Entrepreneur: An Unconventional Campaign Against Intimate Image Abuse Madelaine Thomas states her first-hand ordeal of experiencing her intimate images shared without consent offers her a distinct perspective as a technology entrepreneur. BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas embodies far from your average startup entrepreneur. After repeated occurrences of individuals leaking her intimate photographs, she was "sufficiently outraged to do something about it" and turned to technology for answers. "Those were beautiful pictures, I'm unapologetic of the photographs, I'm ashamed of the way that they were used against me by someone who I have never met," explained Madelaine. Madelaine has received several awards such as the Tech Safety Innovation award at a prominent safety summit. Little over a year since launching her venture, Image Angel, which employs invisible forensic watermarking to track abusers, has garnered significant recognition and was recommended as best practice in an independent pornography review recently. This represents quite a departure from her background in providing BDSM services, dominating clients in the world of kink and bondage. The Pervasive Problem The non-consensual sharing of private images, often referred to as revenge porn, is a punishable crime with offenders risking two years in prison. It is far from an issue uniquely experienced by those in the sex industry. A study indicates that approximately 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by intimate image abuse each year. Madelaine, thirty-seven, said survivors endured shame and stigma. "I think a lot of people will say, 'you shared a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she noted. "I expect dignity, I expect consideration, and I expect trust, and I fail to understand why those are negotiable," she added. "The reality that those images could be then shared where I live or with my loved ones and used to hurt them, that's unacceptable, that's not my choice, that's not my mistake, that's someone committing abuse." Madelaine hopes her tech will prevent potential individuals from sharing photos without consent. A Unique Journey Madelaine has been working as a dominatrix, mainly online, for a decade and consistently found her work empowering and fulfilling. "I am as a woman in control, a woman who is confident and powerful, giving my body as a gift to someone because I wish to," she described. "Some believe it's unusual but I don't see it any differently to a nutritionist or an financial advisor giving advice," she added. She welcomes being a unique figure in the technology sector. "I understand that it's unconventional, it's crazy to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now a creator of a tech company, but it took someone who has experienced it firsthand to understand the flaws and the modifications that needed to happen," she explained. She maintained she was not in the least bit techy and was managed to build her company after many late nights, investigation and "bugging people" who understand tech. How Does the Technology Work? Image Angel can be implemented on any online platform where people share images, for instance dating apps, social networks and websites. When an image is accessed by a viewer, it is automatically embedded with an undetectable digital marker which is unique to them. This covert marker is encoded within the digital file of the image itself and can survive screen shots, being altered and being re-captured with a secondary device. It means that if you discover your image has been shared without your consent, providing the platform you used has the technology embedded, the viewer's details will be hidden within the image and can be retrieved by a data recovery specialist so legal steps can follow. To date, one service has adopted her tech and she's in talks with several more. An Established Method for a New Purpose "The system is already in use in the film industry, it already exists in live television so this is not brand new technology, it's just a novel use and a different framework," said Madelaine. "We have validated it, we're partnering with a company that has 30 years experience in tech development so we know that this is reliable and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she added. She said she believed the technology would also act as a preventive measure to would-be perpetrators. Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame An advocate from a support service commented she had seen directly the trauma and guilt intimate image abuse inflicted on victims. "When that guilt is reinforced by a misinformed friend or service who says 'what did you expect?' that guilt can really be reinforced so it's really important that the support a victim receives is that they have committed no error," she emphasized. She added it was inspiring that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to create solutions, adding: "It is vital to have this multi-layered approach towards addressing tech facilitated gender-based abuse, because no one tool is going to be able to solve this problem, not just support services, it needs to be this multi-layered response." Madelaine Thomas and TV presenter Jess Davies have experienced having their private photos distributed non-consensually. TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when images of her in a state of undress were circulated within her local community. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess experienced in her youth that would later inform her women's rights campaigning. "It required years, an excessive amount of time for someone to tell me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that was wrong'," recalled Jess. She too is passionate about removing the stigma of this crime from the victims to the perpetrators. "It isn't a crime to consensually send an photo to someone," stated Jess. "However, it is illegal to distribute that without consent and I think that should always be where the blame is," she affirmed.