🔗 Share this article Transitioning from Professional Dominatrix to Tech Founder: An Unconventional Battle To Combat Revenge Porn Madelaine Thomas explains her personal experience of experiencing her intimate images leaked gives her a distinct perspective as a technology entrepreneur. BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas represents not at all your standard startup entrepreneur. After repeated instances of clients leaking her intimate photographs, she was "angry enough to take action" and looked to tech solutions for answers. "Those were beautiful pictures, I'm unapologetic of the pictures, I'm ashamed of the manner that they were used against me by someone who I don't know," explained Madelaine. Madelaine has received several awards including the Innovation in Tech Safety award at a major industry conference. Little over a year after launching her company, Image Angel, which uses covert digital tracking to identify abusers, has won several awards and was cited as exemplary procedure in an independent pornography review recently. This represents quite a departure from her previous career in offering BDSM services, working with clients in the realms of BDSM. A Widespread Issue The non-consensual sharing of private images, commonly known as image-based abuse, is a punishable crime with perpetrators facing up to two years in prison. It is far from an issue uniquely experienced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A report indicates that approximately 1.42% of the women in the UK is impacted by intimate image abuse on an annual basis. Madelaine, thirty-seven, said victims lived with shame and stigma. "I think a lot of people will say, 'you shared a private image out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she said. "I demand respect, I expect consideration, and I expect confidence, and I don't see why those are up for debate," she added. "The reality that those images could be then shared where I live or with people I love and used to hurt them, that's beyond, that's not a decision I made, that's not my mistake, that's an individual being an abuser." Madelaine hopes her tech will prevent potential intimate image abusers without consent. A Unique Journey Madelaine has been practicing as a dominatrix, primarily online, for 10 years and consistently found her work empowering and fulfilling. "I am as a woman in control, a woman who is empowered and strong, offering my body as a treat to someone because I wish to," she described. "Some believe it's strange but I don't see it any differently to a nutritionist or an financial advisor providing a service," she added. She embraces being something of an anomaly in the world of tech. "I understand that it's unconventional, it's remarkable to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now a creator of a tech company, but it required someone who has experienced it firsthand to know the flaws and the changes that needed to happen," she explained. She maintained she was not technically inclined and was managed to build her company after many sleepless nights, research and "consulting experts" who know about tech. Understanding the Tech Solution Image Angel can be used by any digital service where people exchange photos, for instance social connection apps, social media and online sites. When an image is accessed by a viewer, it is seamlessly tagged with an undetectable digital marker which is specific to that viewer. This invisible watermark is embedded into the copy of the image itself and can withstand screenshots, being altered and being photographed with a secondary device. It means that if you discover your image has been circulated without your consent, providing the service you used has the system integrated, the viewer's details will be encoded in the image and can be extracted by a forensic expert so action can be taken. To date, one platform has adopted her tech and she's in talks with several more. Proven Technology, New Application "This technology is already in use in the film industry, it is employed in live television so this is not brand new technology, it's just a new application and a new system," said Madelaine. "And we've tested it, we're partnering with a company that has decades of expertise in tech development so we are confident that this is reliable and what we now need to do is test it at scale," she added. She expressed hope she hoped the technology would also act as a preventive measure to would-be perpetrators. Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame An advocate from a support service said she had seen directly the panic, distress and self-blame this abuse inflicted on victims. "If that self-blame is compounded by a misinformed friend or professional who says 'what did you expect?' that guilt can really be reinforced so it's crucial 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 really important to have this multi-layered approach towards addressing tech facilitated abuse, because no one tool is going to be able to solve this problem, no one helpline, it needs to be this integrated effort." Both women have experienced having their private photos shared without their consent. TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when photographs of her in her underwear were shared around her local community. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess experienced 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 shouldn't have happened'," said Jess. She too is passionate about eliminating the shame of intimate image abuse from the victims to the perpetrators. "There is no offence to consensually send an image to someone," stated Jess. "However, it is illegal to circulate that without consent and I think that should always be where the blame is," she concluded.