🔗 Share this article Transitioning from Professional Dominatrix to Tech Founder: A Unique Campaign To Combat Intimate Image Abuse Madelaine Thomas says her personal experience of experiencing her private photos shared without consent gives her a distinct perspective as a tech founder. BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas embodies not at all your standard tech founder. After multiple occurrences of clients distributing her private explicit images, she was "angry enough to take action" and looked to tech solutions for answers. "These were striking images, I'm not ashamed of the photographs, I'm embarrassed of the way that they were used against me by an individual who I don't know," said Madelaine. Madelaine has won multiple accolades such as the Innovation in Tech Safety award at a prominent safety summit. Just over a year after founding her venture, Image Angel, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to track abusers, has won several awards and was recommended as best practice in an government-commissioned study recently. This represents a significant shift from her previous career in providing consensual sexual encounters, dominating clients in the realms of BDSM. The Pervasive Problem The non-consensual sharing of private images, commonly known as revenge porn, is a punishable crime with offenders facing up to two years in prison. It is not at all an issue uniquely experienced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A report indicates that around 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by intimate image abuse each year. Madelaine, 37, said survivors lived with shame and stigma. "In my view a lot of people will comment, 'you shared a private image out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she noted. "I demand respect, I expect respect, and I expect trust, and I don't see why those are negotiable," she continued. "The reality that those images could be subsequently distributed where I live or with my loved ones and employed to cause them pain, that's unacceptable, that's not a decision I made, that's not an error on my part, that's someone being an abuser." Madelaine aims her tech will deter potential intimate image abusers non-consensually. An Unconventional Path Madelaine has been working as a dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and always found her work liberating and satisfying. "I am as a woman in control, a woman who is confident and powerful, offering my body as a gift to someone of my own volition," she described. "Some believe it's strange but I view it similarly to a nutritionist or an accountant giving advice," she remarked. She embraces being a unique figure in the technology sector. "I know that it's unconventional, it's crazy to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a technology firm, but it required someone who has experienced it firsthand to know the flaws and the modifications that needed to happen," she stated. She insisted she was not in the least bit techy and was able to build her company after a lot of late nights, research and "bugging people" who understand tech. Understanding the Tech Solution Image Angel can be implemented on any online platform where people exchange photos, for instance social connection apps, social networks and websites. When an image is viewed by a viewer, it is automatically embedded with an invisible forensic watermark which is unique to them. This covert marker is encoded within the copy of the image itself and can withstand screenshots, being altered and being re-captured with a secondary device. It ensures that if you discover your image has been circulated non-consensually, providing the service you used has the technology embedded, the viewer's details will be hidden within the image and can be retrieved by a forensic expert so action can be taken. To date, one service has adopted her tech and she's in discussions with many others. An Established Method for a New Purpose "This technology 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 new application and a new system," explained Madelaine. "And we've tested it, we're collaborating with a company that has decades of expertise in tech development so we know that this is reliable and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she added. She expressed hope she hoped the technology would also act as a deterrent to would-be perpetrators. Changing the Narrative An expert from a support service commented she had seen first-hand the panic, distress and self-blame intimate image abuse inflicted on victims. "If that self-blame is reinforced by a misinformed friend or service who says 'well, why did you take those images in the first place?' that guilt can really be deepened so it's crucial that the support a victim receives is that they have not done anything wrong," she emphasized. She noted it was inspiring that Madelaine was using her experience to bring about change, adding: "It is really important to have this multi-layered approach towards tackling tech facilitated 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 shared without their consent. TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when images of her in her underwear were shared around her local community. It was the first of several incidents Jess endured in her teens and 20s that would later inform her women's rights campaigning. "It took so long, too long for someone to say to me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," said Jess. She too is dedicated to eliminating the shame of this crime from the survivors to the perpetrators. "There is no offence to consensually send an image to someone," said Jess. "However, it is illegal to circulate that non-consensually and I think that should invariably be where the blame is," she concluded.