🔗 Share this article From Professional Dominatrix to Tech Founder: An Unconventional Campaign To Combat Revenge Porn Madelaine Thomas explains her first-hand ordeal of having her intimate images leaked gives her a distinct perspective as a technology entrepreneur. Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas represents far from your standard startup entrepreneur. After repeated instances of individuals distributing her private explicit images, she was "sufficiently outraged to take action" and looked to tech solutions for a solution. "Those were beautiful pictures, I'm unapologetic of the pictures, I'm embarrassed of the manner that they were weaponized by someone who I have never met," explained Madelaine. Madelaine has received several awards such as the Innovation in Tech Safety award at a major industry conference. Just over a year since founding her venture, Image Angel, which employs invisible forensic watermarking to identify perpetrators, has garnered significant recognition and was cited as exemplary procedure in an independent pornography review recently. This represents a significant shift from her background in offering consensual sexual encounters, dominating clients in the world of BDSM. The Pervasive Problem The non-consensual sharing of private images, often referred to as image-based abuse, 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 suggests that approximately 1.42% of the women in the UK is affected by intimate image abuse each year. Madelaine, thirty-seven, said victims lived with shame and stigma. "I think a lot of people will comment, 'you put a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she noted. "I expect respect, I expect respect, and I expect trust, and I fail to understand why those are negotiable," she added. "The reality that those images could be subsequently distributed in my community or with my loved ones and used to hurt them, that's unacceptable, that's not my choice, that's not an error on my part, that's someone being an abuser." Madelaine hopes her tech will deter potential individuals from sharing photos non-consensually. A Unique Journey Madelaine has been practicing as a dominatrix, mainly online, for a decade and always found her work liberating and satisfying. "It's me as a dominant woman, a woman who is empowered and strong, offering my body as a treat to someone because I wish to," she said. "People think it's strange but I don't see it any differently to a nutritionist or an accountant providing a service," she remarked. She embraces being something of an anomaly in the technology sector. "I understand that it's bizarre, it's remarkable to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a tech company, but it took someone who has been through it to know the loopholes and the changes that needed to happen," she explained. She insisted she was not in the least bit techy and was able 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 social connection apps, social media and online sites. When an image is viewed by a user, it is automatically embedded with an invisible forensic watermark which is specific to that viewer. This covert marker is encoded within the digital file of the image itself and can survive screenshots, being edited and being photographed with a different camera. It means that if you find out your image has been circulated without your consent, providing the service you posted it on has the system integrated, the sharer's information will be encoded in 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 several more. Proven Technology, New Application "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 different framework," said Madelaine. "And we've tested it, we're collaborating with a firm that has decades of expertise in developing technology so we know that this is reliable and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she added. She said she hoped the technology would also act as a deterrent to would-be intimate image abusers. Changing the Narrative An expert from a support service said she had seen first-hand the panic, distress and self-blame this abuse inflicted on victims. "When that guilt is reinforced by a misinformed friend or professional who says 'what did you expect?' that self blame can really be deepened so it's really important that the response somebody is provided with is that they have committed no error," she stated. She noted it was fantastic that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to bring about change, saying: "It is really important to have this comprehensive strategy towards tackling technology-enabled abuse, because a single solution is going to be able to tackle this alone, not just support services, it needs to be this multi-layered response." Madelaine Thomas and TV presenter Jess Davies have experienced having their intimate images distributed without their consent. TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when images of her in a state of undress were circulated within her local community. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess endured in her youth that would later shape her women's rights campaigning. "It required years, too long for someone to tell me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that was wrong'," said Jess. She too is passionate about eliminating the shame of intimate image abuse from the victims to the offenders. "It isn't a crime to willingly share an image to someone," said Jess. "But it is a crime to distribute that without consent and I think that should invariably be where the blame is," she affirmed.