🔗 Share this article Transitioning from Professional Dominatrix to Tech Founder: A Unique Battle To Combat Intimate Image Abuse Madelaine Thomas says her personal experience of experiencing her private photos leaked gives her a unique insight as a tech founder. Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas is not at all your standard tech founder. After repeated instances of clients distributing her private explicit images, she felt "angry enough to do something about it" and looked to technology for a solution. "These 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 have never met," said Madelaine. Madelaine has received several awards including the Tech Safety Innovation award at a major safety summit. Little over a year since launching her company, Image Angel, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to identify abusers, has won several awards and was recommended as exemplary procedure in an independent pornography review earlier this year. This marks quite a departure from her previous career in offering BDSM services, working with clients in the world of kink and bondage. A Widespread Issue The non-consensual sharing of private images, often referred to as revenge porn, is a punishable crime with offenders facing up to two years in prison. It is not at all an issue exclusively faced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A study suggests that around 1.42% of the UK female population is affected by this form of abuse on an annual basis. Madelaine, 37, said victims lived with feelings of humiliation. "In my view 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 fail to understand why those are up for debate," she added. "The reality 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 my mistake, that's an individual committing abuse." Madelaine aims her tech will prevent potential intimate image abusers non-consensually. An Unconventional Path Madelaine has been practicing as a dominatrix, primarily online, for a decade and always found her work empowering and fulfilling. "It's me as a dominant woman, a woman who is confident and powerful, offering my body as a gift to someone because I wish to," she said. "People think it's unusual but I don't see it any differently to a personal trainer or an financial advisor providing a service," she remarked. She embraces being something of an anomaly in the world of tech. "I understand that it's bizarre, it's remarkable to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a technology firm, but it took someone who has experienced it firsthand 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 managed to build her company after a lot of late nights, research and "bugging people" who know about tech. Understanding the Tech Solution Image Angel can be implemented on any digital service where people exchange photos, for instance social connection apps, social media and websites. When an image is accessed by a viewer, it is automatically embedded with an undetectable digital marker which is unique to them. This invisible watermark is encoded within the digital file of the image itself and can withstand screenshots, being edited and being photographed with a secondary device. It ensures that if you find out your image has been shared non-consensually, providing the service you used has the system integrated, the viewer's details will be encoded in the image and can be retrieved by a forensic expert so legal steps can follow. To date, one platform has implemented her tech and she's in talks with many others. An Established Method for a New Purpose "This technology already exists in Hollywood, it is employed in sports broadcasting so this is not an untested concept, 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 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 preventive measure to potential perpetrators. Changing the Narrative An expert from a support service said she had seen directly the trauma and guilt intimate image abuse caused for victims. "When that guilt is compounded 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 support a victim receives is that they have committed no error," she stated. She noted it was fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, adding: "It is vital to have this multi-layered approach towards tackling tech facilitated gender-based abuse, because a single solution is going to be able to solve this problem, not just support services, it needs to be this integrated effort." Madelaine Thomas and TV presenter Jess Davies have experienced experiencing their intimate images shared non-consensually. TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when photographs of her in a state of undress were circulated within her local community. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess experienced in her youth that would later shape her advocacy work. "It took so long, 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 circulate that non-consensually and I think that should always be where the responsibility is," she concluded.