🔗 Share this article Transitioning from Professional Dominatrix to Technology Entrepreneur: An Unconventional Battle Against Revenge Porn Madelaine Thomas states her personal experience of experiencing her intimate images leaked gives her a unique insight as a tech founder. Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas embodies far from your typical startup entrepreneur. After multiple instances of individuals leaking her intimate photographs, she was "angry enough to do something about it" and looked to tech solutions for answers. "These were beautiful pictures, I'm unapologetic of the pictures, I'm ashamed of the way that they were used against me by an individual who I don't know," said Madelaine. Madelaine has received several awards such as the Tech Safety Innovation award at a major industry conference. Just over a year after launching her venture, Image Angel, which employs invisible forensic watermarking to track perpetrators, has won several awards and was recommended as best practice in an independent pornography review recently. This marks quite a departure from her background in providing consensual sexual encounters, dominating clients in the world of kink and bondage. The Pervasive Problem Intimate image abuse, commonly known as image-based abuse, is a criminal offence with perpetrators risking two years in prison. It is far from an issue exclusively faced by those in the sex industry. A report indicates that approximately 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by intimate image abuse each year. Madelaine, 37, said victims lived with feelings of humiliation. "In my view a lot of people will comment, 'you put a private image out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she noted. "I demand dignity, 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 subsequently distributed in my community or with my loved ones and used to hurt them, that's beyond, that's not a decision I made, that's not an error on my part, that's an individual committing abuse." Madelaine hopes her tech will deter would-be individuals from sharing photos without consent. A Unique Journey Madelaine has been practicing as a professional dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and always found her work liberating and satisfying. "I am as a woman in control, a woman who is confident and powerful, offering my body as a gift to someone because I wish to," she said. "Some believe it's unusual but I don't see it any differently to a personal trainer or an financial advisor providing a service," she added. She welcomes being something of an anomaly in the technology sector. "I know 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 required someone who has experienced it firsthand to know the flaws and the modifications that needed to happen," she explained. She maintained she was not in the least bit techy and was able to build her company after a lot of sleepless nights, investigation and "bugging people" who know about tech. Understanding the Tech Solution Image Angel can be implemented on any online platform where people share images, for instance dating apps, social networks and websites. When an image is accessed by a user, it is automatically embedded with an invisible forensic watermark which is specific to that viewer. This invisible watermark is embedded into the digital file of the image itself and can withstand screen shots, being edited and being re-captured with a different camera. It means that if you discover your image has been shared non-consensually, providing the platform you posted it on has the technology embedded, 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 implemented her tech and she's in discussions with several more. 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 an untested concept, it's just a novel use and a different framework," said Madelaine. "And we've tested it, we're collaborating with a company that has decades of expertise in developing technology so we know that this is solid and what we now need to do is test it at scale," she continued. She expressed hope she believed the technology would also act as a deterrent to would-be intimate image abusers. Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame An expert from a leading helpline commented she had seen first-hand the panic, distress and self-blame this abuse inflicted on victims. "When that guilt is compounded by a misinformed friend or service who says 'what did you expect?' that guilt can really be deepened so it's crucial that the support a victim receives is that they have not done anything wrong," she emphasized. She noted it was fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, adding: "It is really important to have this comprehensive strategy towards tackling technology-enabled gender-based abuse, because no one tool 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 private photos distributed non-consensually. TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when images 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 inform her women's rights campaigning. "It took so long, an excessive amount of time for someone to tell me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," said Jess. She too is dedicated to eliminating the shame of this crime from the survivors to the perpetrators. "There is no offence to consensually send an photo to someone," said Jess. "However, it is illegal to distribute that without consent and I think that should always be where the responsibility is," she affirmed.