🔗 Share this article Transitioning from Dominatrix to Technology Entrepreneur: An Unconventional Campaign Against Revenge Porn Madelaine Thomas explains her personal experience of having her private photos leaked gives her a unique insight as a tech founder. Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas represents far from your standard startup entrepreneur. After multiple occurrences of individuals distributing her private explicit images, she felt "angry enough to take action" and turned to tech solutions for a solution. "These were beautiful pictures, I'm unapologetic of the pictures, I'm ashamed of the way that they were used against me by someone who I don't know," stated Madelaine. Madelaine has received multiple accolades including the Innovation in Tech Safety award at a major industry conference. Just over a year after founding her company, Image Angel, which employs invisible forensic watermarking to track perpetrators, has garnered significant recognition and was recommended as exemplary procedure in an government-commissioned study earlier this year. This marks quite a departure from her background in offering BDSM services, working with clients in the world of kink and bondage. A Widespread Issue Intimate image abuse, commonly known as revenge porn, is a punishable crime with perpetrators risking two years in prison. It is far from an issue exclusively faced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A study indicates that around 1.42% of the UK female population is affected by this form of abuse each year. Madelaine, thirty-seven, said survivors endured shame and stigma. "In my view a lot of people will say, 'you shared a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she noted. "I expect dignity, I expect respect, and I expect confidence, and I don't see why those are negotiable," she added. "The fact that those images could be subsequently distributed in my community or with people I love and employed to cause them pain, that's unacceptable, that's not my choice, that's not an error on my part, that's someone committing abuse." Madelaine hopes her tech will deter potential individuals from sharing photos without consent. An Unconventional Path Madelaine has been working as a dominatrix, mainly online, for a decade and consistently found her work liberating and satisfying. "I am as a woman in control, a woman who is empowered and strong, giving my body as a gift to someone because I wish to," she said. "Some believe it's unusual but I don't see it any differently to a nutritionist or an financial advisor giving advice," she added. She welcomes being a unique figure in the technology sector. "I know 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 know the flaws and the modifications that were necessary," she explained. She maintained she was not technically inclined and was able 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 dating apps, social networks and online sites. When an image is viewed by a user, it is automatically embedded with an undetectable digital marker which is unique to them. This covert marker is embedded into the copy of the image itself and can survive screen shots, being edited and being photographed with a secondary device. It means that if you discover your image has been shared without your consent, 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 legal steps can follow. To date, one service has adopted her tech and she's in discussions with many others. An Established Method for a New Purpose "This technology is already in use in the film industry, it is employed in live television so this is not brand new technology, it's just a new application and a new system," said Madelaine. "We have validated it, we're partnering with a firm that has 30 years experience in developing technology so we are confident that this is reliable and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she added. She said she hoped the technology would also act as a preventive measure to would-be perpetrators. Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame An advocate from a support service commented she had seen directly the panic, distress and self-blame 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 added it was fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, saying: "It is really important to have this multi-layered approach towards addressing technology-enabled gender-based abuse, because no one tool is going to be able to solve this problem, not just support services, it needs to be this multi-layered response." Both women have experienced having their intimate images distributed non-consensually. TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when photographs of her in a state of undress were shared around her town. It was the first of several incidents Jess endured in her youth 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 was wrong'," recalled Jess. She too is passionate about removing the stigma of this crime from the victims to the perpetrators. "There is no offence to willingly share an photo to someone," said Jess. "But it is a crime to distribute that without consent and I think that should invariably be where the blame is," she concluded.