🔗 Share this article Transitioning from BDSM Practitioner to Tech Founder: A Unique Campaign To Combat Intimate Image Abuse Madelaine Thomas explains her first-hand ordeal of experiencing her intimate images leaked offers her a unique insight as a technology entrepreneur. Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas embodies far from your average startup entrepreneur. Following multiple occurrences of clients distributing her private explicit images, she felt "angry enough to do something about it" and turned to technology for answers. "These were striking images, I'm not ashamed of the photographs, I'm ashamed of the way that they were used against me by an individual who I have never met," said Madelaine. Madelaine has won several awards such as the Tech Safety Innovation award at a major safety summit. Little over a year after founding her venture, Image Angel, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to track perpetrators, has garnered significant recognition and was cited as best practice in an independent pornography review recently. This represents quite a departure from her previous career in offering consensual sexual encounters, working with clients in the world of kink and bondage. The Pervasive Problem Intimate image abuse, often referred to as revenge porn, is a punishable crime with perpetrators risking two years in prison. It is not at all an issue uniquely experienced by those in the sex industry. A study indicates that around 1.42% of the women in the UK is impacted by intimate image abuse each year. Madelaine, thirty-seven, explained victims lived with feelings of humiliation. "I think a lot of people will comment, 'you shared a private image out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she said. "I demand dignity, I expect consideration, and I expect trust, and I don't see why those are negotiable," she continued. "The fact that those images could be then shared in my community or with my loved ones and employed to cause them pain, that's unacceptable, that's not a decision I made, that's not my mistake, that's an individual committing abuse." Madelaine aims her technology will deter would-be intimate image abusers without consent. A Unique Journey Madelaine has been practicing as a dominatrix, primarily online, for a decade and consistently found her work empowering and fulfilling. "I am as a dominant woman, a woman who is empowered and strong, giving my body as a treat to someone of my own volition," she described. "Some believe it's strange but I don't see it any differently to a personal trainer or an financial advisor providing a service," she added. She welcomes being a unique figure in the world of tech. "I understand that it's bizarre, it's crazy to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a creator of a tech company, but it took someone who has been through it 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 late nights, investigation and "bugging people" who know about tech. How Does the Technology Work? Image Angel can be used by any online platform where people exchange photos, for instance social connection apps, social media and websites. When an image is viewed by a user, it is automatically embedded with an invisible forensic watermark which is unique to them. This invisible watermark is encoded within the copy of the image itself and can withstand screen shots, being edited and being photographed with a secondary device. It means that if you find out your image has been shared without your consent, as long as the service you posted it on has the technology embedded, the sharer's information will be hidden within 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 discussions with several more. Proven Technology, New Application "This technology already exists in Hollywood, it already exists in sports broadcasting so this is not an untested concept, it's just a new application and a new system," explained Madelaine. "And we've tested it, we're collaborating with a firm that has decades of expertise in tech development so we know that this is solid and what we now need to do is test it at scale," she continued. She said she hoped the technology would also act as a preventive measure 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. "When that guilt is reinforced by a uninformed acquaintance or service who says 'what did you expect?' that guilt can really be deepened so it's crucial that the response somebody is provided with is that they have not done anything wrong," she emphasized. She added it was inspiring that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to create solutions, saying: "It is really important to have this comprehensive strategy towards addressing technology-enabled gender-based abuse, because a single solution is going to be able to tackle this alone, not just support services, it needs to be this integrated effort." Both women have experienced having their intimate images shared non-consensually. TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when photographs of her in a state of undress were shared around her town. It was the first of several incidents Jess experienced in her youth that would later shape her women's rights campaigning. "It required years, too long for someone to say to me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that was wrong'," said Jess. She too is dedicated to eliminating the shame of intimate image abuse from the victims to the perpetrators. "It isn't a crime to consensually send an image to someone," stated Jess. "But it is a crime to distribute that non-consensually and I think that should invariably be where the responsibility is," she affirmed.