🔗 Share this article From Professional Dominatrix to Tech Founder: A Unique Campaign To Combat Revenge Porn Madelaine Thomas states her personal experience of experiencing her intimate images shared without consent provides her a unique insight as a technology entrepreneur. BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas represents not at all your average startup entrepreneur. After multiple instances of clients leaking her intimate photographs, she was "sufficiently outraged to take action" and looked to tech solutions for answers. "Those were beautiful pictures, I'm unapologetic of the pictures, I'm embarrassed of the way that they were used against me by someone who I have never met," explained Madelaine. Madelaine has won several awards such as the Tech Safety Innovation award at a major safety summit. Just over a year since founding her company, Image Angel, which uses covert digital tracking to identify perpetrators, has won several awards and was cited as exemplary procedure in an independent pornography review recently. This represents quite a departure from her background in offering consensual sexual encounters, working with clients in the realms of kink and bondage. The Pervasive Problem The non-consensual sharing of private images, commonly known as revenge porn, is a punishable crime with perpetrators facing up to two years in prison. It is far from an issue uniquely experienced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A study indicates that around 1.42% of the UK female population is affected by intimate image abuse on an annual basis. Madelaine, 37, explained survivors lived with feelings of humiliation. "I think a lot of people will comment, 'you put a private image out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she said. "I expect respect, I expect respect, and I expect trust, and I fail to understand why those are negotiable," she continued. "The fact that those images could be subsequently distributed where I live or with people I love and employed to cause them pain, that's beyond, that's not a decision I made, that's not my mistake, that's an individual being an abuser." Madelaine aims her tech will deter would-be intimate image abusers without consent. A Unique Journey Madelaine has been working 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 unusual but I don't see it any differently to a nutritionist or an accountant providing a service," she remarked. She welcomes being something of an anomaly in the world of tech. "I understand that it's unconventional, it's remarkable to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a technology firm, but it took someone who has been through it to know the loopholes and the modifications that needed to happen," she stated. She insisted she was not technically inclined and was able to build her company after a lot of late nights, investigation and "consulting experts" who understand tech. Understanding the Tech Solution Image Angel can be implemented on any online platform where people share images, for instance social connection apps, social media and online sites. When an image is viewed by a viewer, it is automatically embedded with an invisible forensic watermark 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 discover your image has been shared non-consensually, providing the service you posted it on has the system integrated, the viewer's details will be hidden within the image and can be retrieved by a data recovery specialist so action can be taken. Currently, one platform has implemented her tech and she's in talks with several more. An Established Method for a New Purpose "The system 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 partnering with a company that has decades of expertise in tech development so we are confident that this is solid and what we now need to do is test it at scale," she continued. She said she believed the technology would also act as a preventive measure to would-be intimate image abusers. Changing the Narrative An advocate from a leading helpline said she had seen first-hand the trauma and guilt intimate image abuse caused for 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 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 emphasized. She added it was inspiring that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, saying: "It is vital to have this comprehensive strategy towards tackling technology-enabled abuse, because no one tool is going to be able to tackle this alone, not just support services, it needs to be this integrated effort." Madelaine Thomas and TV presenter Jess Davies have experienced experiencing their private photos shared non-consensually. TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when images of her in her underwear were circulated within her local community. It was the first of several incidents Jess endured in her youth that would later inform her women's rights campaigning. "It took so long, too long for someone to tell me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that was wrong'," said Jess. She too is passionate about eliminating the shame of intimate image abuse from the victims to the offenders. "It isn't a crime to willingly share an photo to someone," said Jess. "However, it is illegal to circulate that without consent and I think that should invariably be where the responsibility is," she concluded.