🔗 Share this article From Dominatrix to Tech Founder: An Unconventional Battle Against Revenge Porn Madelaine Thomas states her first-hand ordeal of having her private photos shared without consent gives her a unique insight as a tech founder. BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas represents far from your average tech founder. After multiple occurrences of clients distributing her intimate photographs, she was "sufficiently outraged to take action" and looked to tech solutions for a solution. "These were striking images, I'm unapologetic of the pictures, I'm embarrassed of the way that they were used against me by someone who I don't know," explained Madelaine. Madelaine has won multiple accolades including the Tech Safety Innovation award at a prominent safety summit. Just over a year since 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 government-commissioned study recently. This represents quite a departure from her previous career in offering BDSM services, working with clients in the world of kink and bondage. The Pervasive Problem Intimate image abuse, commonly known 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 report suggests that around 1.42% of the women in the UK is impacted by intimate image abuse on an annual basis. Madelaine, thirty-seven, said survivors lived with feelings of humiliation. "I think a lot of people will say, 'you shared a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she noted. "I demand respect, I expect consideration, and I expect trust, and I don't see why those are up for debate," she added. "The reality that those images could be then shared where I live or with people I love and employed to cause them pain, that's beyond, that's not my choice, that's not an error on my part, that's someone committing abuse." Madelaine hopes her tech will prevent potential individuals from sharing photos without consent. 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 because I wish to," she described. "People think it's strange but I view it similarly to a nutritionist or an financial advisor providing a service," she added. She embraces being a unique figure in the technology sector. "I understand that it's bizarre, it's crazy to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now a creator of a tech company, but it required someone who has been through it to understand the loopholes and the modifications that needed to happen," she explained. She maintained she was not technically inclined and was managed to build her company after a lot of late nights, research and "consulting experts" who know about tech. How Does the Technology Work? Image Angel can be implemented on any digital service where people share images, 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 covert marker is embedded into the digital file of the image itself and can withstand screenshots, being edited and being re-captured with a secondary device. It means that if you find out your image has been circulated without your consent, as long as the platform you used has the technology embedded, the sharer's information will be encoded in the image and can be retrieved by a data recovery specialist so legal steps can follow. Currently, one service has implemented her tech and she's in discussions with several more. Proven Technology, New Application "This technology already exists in Hollywood, it already exists in live television so this is not an untested concept, it's just a novel use and a new system," said Madelaine. "And we've tested it, we're partnering with a firm that has 30 years experience 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 hoped the technology would also act as a deterrent to would-be perpetrators. 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. "If that self-blame is reinforced by a misinformed friend or service 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 stated. She added it was fantastic that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to bring about change, adding: "It is really important to have this multi-layered approach towards tackling tech facilitated abuse, because no one tool is going to be able to solve this problem, not just support services, it needs to be this integrated effort." Both women have experienced having their private photos shared without their consent. TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when photographs of her in a state of undress were shared around her local community. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess experienced in her teens and 20s that would later shape her women's rights campaigning. "It took so long, too long for someone to tell me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," recalled Jess. She too is dedicated to eliminating the shame of intimate image abuse from the victims to the offenders. "It isn't a crime to willingly share an image to someone," stated Jess. "But it is a crime to distribute that without consent and I think that should invariably be where the responsibility is," she concluded.