🔗 Share this article Transitioning from Dominatrix to Technology Entrepreneur: A Unique Fight Against Revenge Porn Madelaine Thomas states her personal experience of having her private photos shared without consent provides her a unique insight as a technology entrepreneur. BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas represents not at all your standard startup entrepreneur. Following multiple instances of individuals distributing her private explicit images, she was "sufficiently outraged to take action" and turned to technology for answers. "Those were striking images, I'm unapologetic of the pictures, I'm ashamed of the manner that they were used against me by someone who I have never met," explained Madelaine. Madelaine has received multiple accolades including the Innovation in Tech Safety award at a major industry conference. Little over a year since launching her company, Image Angel, which uses covert digital tracking to track abusers, has garnered significant recognition and was cited as best practice in an independent pornography review recently. This represents quite a departure from her background in providing BDSM services, working with clients in the world of kink and bondage. A Widespread Issue 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 exclusively faced by those in the sex industry. A study suggests that around 1.42% of the UK female population is affected by intimate image abuse each year. Madelaine, thirty-seven, explained survivors lived with shame and stigma. "I think a lot of people will comment, 'you shared a private image out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she noted. "I expect respect, I expect consideration, and I expect trust, 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 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 someone being an abuser." Madelaine aims her technology will prevent potential intimate image abusers without consent. An Unconventional Path Madelaine has been working as a professional dominatrix, primarily online, for a decade and consistently found her work empowering and fulfilling. "I am as a woman in control, a woman who is confident and powerful, giving my body as a gift to someone of my own volition," she said. "People think it's unusual but I don't see it any differently to a nutritionist or an financial advisor giving advice," she added. She embraces being a unique figure in the technology sector. "I understand that it's bizarre, it's crazy to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a tech company, but it took someone who has been through it to know the loopholes and the changes 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 know about tech. How Does the Technology Work? Image Angel can be used by any digital service where people exchange photos, for instance social connection apps, social networks and online sites. When an image is viewed by a viewer, it is automatically embedded with an undetectable digital marker which is specific to that viewer. This invisible watermark is embedded into the copy of the image itself and can withstand screenshots, being altered and being re-captured with a different camera. It ensures that if you discover your image has been circulated without your consent, as long as the service you used has the system integrated, 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 adopted her tech and she's in talks with several more. An Established Method for a New Purpose "The system is already in use in Hollywood, it already exists in sports broadcasting so this is not an untested concept, it's just a new application and a new system," said Madelaine. "And we've tested it, we're partnering with a company that has decades of expertise in tech development 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 advocate from a leading helpline commented she had seen directly the trauma and guilt this abuse inflicted on victims. "When that guilt is compounded 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 response somebody is provided with is that they have not done anything wrong," she emphasized. She noted it was fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to bring about change, saying: "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 tackle this alone, not just support services, it needs to be this multi-layered response." Both women have been victims of experiencing 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 first of several incidents Jess experienced in her teens and 20s that would later shape her women's rights campaigning. "It required years, too long 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 willingly share an photo to someone," said Jess. "However, it is illegal to circulate that non-consensually and I think that should always be where the responsibility is," she affirmed.