🔗 Share this article From Dominatrix to Technology Entrepreneur: A Unique Fight To Combat Revenge Porn Madelaine Thomas says her first-hand ordeal of experiencing her private photos leaked offers her a unique insight as a tech founder. Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas represents far from your standard startup entrepreneur. Following multiple instances of clients leaking her private explicit images, she felt "angry enough to take action" and turned to technology for answers. "Those were beautiful pictures, I'm unapologetic of the photographs, I'm embarrassed of the way that they were used against me by someone who I don't know," said Madelaine. Madelaine has received several awards such as the Tech Safety Innovation award at a prominent safety summit. Little over a year since founding her venture, Image Angel, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to identify abusers, has garnered significant recognition and was recommended as best practice in an independent pornography review recently. This represents a significant shift from her background in offering consensual sexual encounters, dominating clients in the realms of BDSM. A Widespread Issue Intimate image abuse, often referred to as image-based abuse, is a punishable crime with perpetrators risking 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 women in the UK is affected by this form of abuse each year. Madelaine, thirty-seven, said victims endured shame and stigma. "In my view a lot of people will say, 'you put a private image out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she noted. "I expect respect, I expect consideration, and I expect confidence, and I don't see why those are negotiable," she continued. "The fact that those images could be subsequently distributed in my community or with people I love and used to hurt them, that's unacceptable, that's not a decision I made, that's not an error on my part, that's an individual committing abuse." Madelaine hopes her technology will prevent would-be individuals from sharing photos non-consensually. A Unique Journey Madelaine has been practicing as a dominatrix, primarily online, for a decade and consistently found her work liberating and satisfying. "I am as a dominant woman, a woman who is empowered and strong, offering my body as a gift to someone of my own volition," she said. "People think it's strange but I view it similarly to a personal trainer or an accountant providing a service," she remarked. She embraces 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 founder of a technology firm, but it required someone who has experienced it firsthand to understand the flaws and the changes that needed to happen," she stated. She insisted she was not in the least bit techy and was able to build her company after many sleepless nights, investigation and "consulting experts" who understand tech. Understanding the Tech Solution Image Angel can be implemented on any digital service where people exchange photos, for instance social connection apps, social networks and websites. When an image is accessed by a viewer, it is seamlessly tagged 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 re-captured with a different camera. It means that if you discover your image has been circulated non-consensually, providing the platform you used has the system integrated, the sharer's information will be encoded in the image and can be extracted by a data recovery specialist so action can be taken. Currently, one service has implemented 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 novel use 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 are confident that this is reliable and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she continued. She said she believed the technology would also act as a deterrent to would-be perpetrators. Changing the Narrative An expert from a leading helpline commented she had seen first-hand the trauma and guilt this abuse inflicted on victims. "If that self-blame is compounded by a uninformed acquaintance or professional who says 'well, why did you take those images in the first place?' that guilt can really be reinforced so it's crucial that the response somebody is provided with is that they have committed no error," she emphasized. She added it was fantastic that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to bring about change, saying: "It is vital to have this comprehensive strategy towards tackling technology-enabled gender-based abuse, because a single solution is going to be able to solve this problem, no one helpline, it needs to be this integrated effort." Madelaine Thomas and TV presenter Jess Davies have been victims of having their intimate images shared without their consent. TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when images of her in her underwear were circulated within 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 say to me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," recalled Jess. She too is passionate about eliminating the shame of this crime from the victims to the perpetrators. "There is no offence to willingly share an image to someone," said Jess. "However, it is illegal to circulate that without consent and I think that should invariably be where the blame is," she concluded.