🔗 Share this article From Professional Dominatrix to Technology Entrepreneur: A Unique Battle To Combat Revenge Porn Madelaine Thomas explains her personal experience of experiencing her intimate images leaked gives her a distinct perspective as a technology entrepreneur. Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas embodies far from your typical startup entrepreneur. After multiple occurrences of clients leaking her intimate photographs, she was "angry enough to take action" and turned to tech solutions for a solution. "Those were beautiful pictures, I'm unapologetic of the photographs, I'm ashamed of the manner that they were weaponized by someone who I have never met," stated Madelaine. Madelaine has received multiple accolades including the Innovation in Tech Safety award at a major safety summit. Just over a year since founding her venture, Image Angel, which uses covert digital tracking to track abusers, has won several awards and was recommended as best practice in an independent pornography review recently. This represents quite a departure from her background in offering consensual sexual encounters, dominating clients in the world of kink and bondage. A Widespread Issue Intimate image abuse, often referred to as revenge porn, is a punishable crime with perpetrators facing up to two years in prison. It is not at all an issue uniquely experienced by those in the sex industry. A report indicates that approximately 1.42% of the women in the UK is affected by this form of abuse on an annual basis. Madelaine, thirty-seven, said survivors endured feelings of humiliation. "I think a lot of people will comment, 'you shared a private image out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she said. "I expect dignity, I expect consideration, and I expect confidence, and I don't see why those are up for debate," she continued. "The fact that those images could be subsequently distributed in my community or with my loved ones and used to hurt them, that's unacceptable, that's not a decision I made, that's not an error on my part, that's an individual committing abuse." Madelaine aims her technology will prevent potential intimate image abusers without consent. An Unconventional Path Madelaine has been working as a dominatrix, mainly online, for a decade and always found her work empowering and fulfilling. "It's me 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. "People think it's strange but I don't see it any differently to a nutritionist or an accountant giving advice," she remarked. She embraces being a unique figure in the world of tech. "I understand that it's unconventional, it's crazy to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a creator 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 maintained she was not technically inclined and was managed to build her company after a lot of sleepless nights, research and "consulting experts" who know about tech. How Does the Technology Work? Image Angel can be implemented on any online platform where people exchange photos, for instance dating apps, social networks and online sites. When an image is viewed by a viewer, it is seamlessly tagged with an invisible forensic watermark which is unique to them. This covert marker is encoded within the copy of the image itself and can survive screenshots, being edited and being re-captured with a different camera. It means that if you discover your image has been circulated without your consent, providing the service you used has the system integrated, 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 adopted her tech and she's in talks with many others. Proven Technology, New Application "The system is already in use in the film industry, it is employed in sports broadcasting so this is not brand new technology, it's just a novel use and a new system," said Madelaine. "We have validated it, we're collaborating with a company that has 30 years experience in developing technology so we are confident that this is solid 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 deterrent to potential perpetrators. Changing the Narrative An expert from a leading helpline said she had seen directly the panic, distress and self-blame this abuse caused for 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 guilt can really be reinforced so it's really important that the response somebody is provided with is that they have not done anything wrong," she emphasized. She noted it was fantastic that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to bring about change, saying: "It is really important to have this multi-layered approach towards addressing tech facilitated gender-based abuse, because no one tool is going to be able to tackle this alone, no one helpline, it needs to be this multi-layered response." Both women have experienced experiencing their private photos shared non-consensually. TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when images of her in a state of undress were shared around her local community. It was the first of several incidents Jess experienced in her teens and 20s that would later inform her advocacy work. "It required years, an excessive amount of time for someone to say to me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that was wrong'," recalled Jess. She too is dedicated to removing the stigma of intimate image abuse from the survivors to the offenders. "It isn't a crime to willingly share an photo to someone," stated Jess. "However, it is illegal to circulate that without consent and I think that should always be where the responsibility is," she affirmed.