🔗 Share this article Transitioning from Dominatrix to Technology Entrepreneur: An Unconventional Campaign To Combat Revenge Porn Madelaine Thomas explains her personal experience of having her private photos leaked offers her a unique insight as a technology entrepreneur. Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas embodies far from your average tech founder. After multiple instances of individuals leaking her private explicit images, she was "angry enough to take action" and turned to technology for answers. "These were striking images, I'm not ashamed of the pictures, I'm embarrassed of the manner that they were used against me by someone who I have never met," explained Madelaine. Madelaine has received multiple accolades such as the Innovation in Tech Safety award at a prominent safety summit. Little over a year since founding her company, Image Angel, which uses covert digital tracking to identify abusers, has garnered significant recognition and was cited as best practice in an government-commissioned study earlier this year. This represents quite a departure from her background in providing BDSM services, working with clients in the realms of kink and bondage. The Pervasive Problem The non-consensual sharing of private images, commonly known as image-based abuse, is a criminal offence with offenders risking two years in prison. It is far from an issue exclusively faced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A study suggests that around 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by intimate image abuse each year. Madelaine, 37, explained survivors endured shame and stigma. "I think a lot of people will comment, 'you put a private image out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she said. "I demand respect, I expect consideration, and I expect trust, and I don't see why those are negotiable," she continued. "The reality that those images could be subsequently distributed where I live or with my loved ones and used to hurt them, that's beyond, that's not a decision I made, that's not an error on my part, that's someone being an abuser." Madelaine hopes her technology will prevent would-be intimate image abusers non-consensually. A Unique Journey Madelaine has been practicing 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 empowered and strong, giving my body as a treat to someone of my own volition," she described. "Some believe it's strange but I view it similarly to a nutritionist or an financial advisor giving advice," she added. She welcomes being a unique figure in the world of tech. "I understand that it's unconventional, it's remarkable to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a tech company, but it took someone who has been through it to understand the loopholes and the changes that needed to happen," she stated. She maintained she was not technically inclined and was managed to build her company after a lot of sleepless nights, research and "bugging people" who understand tech. How Does the Technology Work? Image Angel can be used by any online platform where people share images, for instance social connection apps, social networks and online sites. When an image is accessed by a user, it is seamlessly tagged with an undetectable digital marker which is specific to that viewer. This covert marker is embedded into the digital file of the image itself and can survive screen shots, being edited and being re-captured with a different camera. It ensures that if you find out your image has been shared non-consensually, providing the platform 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 legal steps can follow. To date, one platform has adopted her tech and she's in talks with several more. Proven Technology, New Application "This technology already exists in Hollywood, it is employed in sports broadcasting so this is not an untested concept, it's just a new application and a new system," explained Madelaine. "And we've tested it, we're collaborating with a firm that has decades of expertise in developing technology so we know that this is reliable and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she added. She said she believed the technology would also act as a deterrent to would-be intimate image abusers. Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame An advocate from a support service said she had seen directly the panic, distress and self-blame this abuse inflicted on victims. "When that guilt is compounded by a uninformed acquaintance or professional who says 'well, why did you take those images in the first place?' that guilt can really be deepened 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 bring about change, saying: "It is really important to have this multi-layered approach towards tackling technology-enabled gender-based 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." Both women have been victims of experiencing their private photos shared non-consensually. TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when images of her in her underwear were shared around her town. It was the first of several incidents Jess experienced in her youth that would later shape her advocacy work. "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 dedicated to eliminating the shame of this crime from the survivors to the offenders. "There is no offence to willingly share an image to someone," stated Jess. "But it is a crime to circulate that non-consensually and I think that should always be where the blame is," she concluded.