🔗 Share this article Transitioning from Professional Dominatrix to Technology Entrepreneur: An Unconventional Campaign To Combat Intimate Image Abuse Madelaine Thomas states her personal experience of having her intimate images shared without consent offers her a unique insight as a tech founder. Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas represents not at all your average tech founder. Following multiple occurrences of clients leaking her private explicit images, she was "sufficiently outraged to take action" and looked to technology for a solution. "These were beautiful pictures, I'm not ashamed of the photographs, I'm embarrassed of the way that they were weaponized by someone who I don't know," said Madelaine. Madelaine has won several awards including the Innovation in Tech Safety award at a major industry conference. Little over a year after founding her company, Image Angel, which employs covert digital tracking to track abusers, has won several awards and was recommended as exemplary procedure in an government-commissioned study earlier this year. This marks quite a departure from her background in providing consensual sexual encounters, working with clients in the realms of BDSM. A Widespread Issue The non-consensual sharing of private images, commonly known as revenge porn, is a criminal offence with offenders facing up to two years in prison. It is not at all an issue exclusively faced by those in the sex industry. A report suggests that approximately 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by intimate image abuse each year. Madelaine, thirty-seven, explained survivors endured shame and stigma. "I think a lot of people will say, 'you put a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she said. "I demand respect, I expect respect, and I expect confidence, and I fail to understand why those are negotiable," she continued. "The reality that those images could be then shared 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 my mistake, that's an individual being an abuser." Madelaine hopes her technology will deter potential individuals from sharing photos without consent. An Unconventional Path Madelaine has been working as a professional dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and consistently found her work empowering and fulfilling. "It's me as a dominant woman, a woman who is confident and powerful, giving my body as a gift to someone because I wish to," she said. "Some believe it's unusual but I view it similarly to a personal trainer or an financial advisor giving advice," she remarked. She welcomes being something of an anomaly in the technology sector. "I understand that it's bizarre, it's remarkable to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a creator of a technology firm, but it required someone who has been through it to know the loopholes and the modifications that were necessary," she explained. She insisted she was not in the least bit techy and was able to build her company after a lot of sleepless nights, investigation and "consulting experts" who understand tech. How Does the Technology Work? Image Angel can be used by any digital service where people share images, for instance dating apps, social media and online sites. When an image is accessed by a user, it is automatically embedded with an invisible forensic watermark which is unique to them. This covert marker is encoded within the digital file of the image itself and can survive screenshots, being altered and being re-captured with a different camera. It ensures that if you find out your image has been shared without your consent, providing the platform you used has the system integrated, the sharer's information will be hidden within the image and can be retrieved by a forensic expert so legal steps can follow. To date, one platform has adopted her tech and she's in talks with many others. An Established Method for a New Purpose "The system already exists in Hollywood, it already exists in live television so this is not an untested concept, it's just a new application and a different framework," said Madelaine. "We have validated it, we're collaborating 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 said she hoped the technology would also act as a deterrent to potential intimate image abusers. Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame An expert from a leading helpline commented she had seen first-hand the trauma and guilt intimate image abuse inflicted on victims. "When that guilt is compounded by a misinformed friend or professional who says 'well, why did you take those images in the first place?' that self blame can really be reinforced so it's really important that the support a victim receives is that they have committed no error," she stated. She added it was fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, adding: "It is vital to have this comprehensive strategy towards addressing tech facilitated 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 multi-layered response." Madelaine Thomas and TV presenter Jess Davies have experienced experiencing their intimate images shared without their consent. TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when photographs of her in her underwear were shared around her local community. It was the first of several incidents Jess endured in her youth that would later shape her women's rights campaigning. "It took so long, an excessive amount of time 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 survivors to the offenders. "It isn't a crime to consensually send an photo 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.