🔗 Share this article From BDSM Practitioner to Technology Entrepreneur: A Unique Battle Against Intimate Image Abuse Madelaine Thomas states her first-hand ordeal of experiencing her intimate images leaked gives her a distinct perspective as a tech founder. BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas represents far from your typical startup entrepreneur. Following repeated instances of individuals leaking her intimate photographs, she felt "angry enough to take action" and looked to tech solutions for answers. "Those were beautiful pictures, I'm not ashamed of the photographs, I'm embarrassed of the way that they were weaponized by someone who I have never met," stated 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 won several awards and was cited as best practice in an government-commissioned study earlier this year. This represents a significant shift from her previous career in providing BDSM services, dominating 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 offenders risking two years in prison. It is far from an issue uniquely experienced by those in the sex industry. A report indicates that around 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by this form of abuse each year. Madelaine, 37, said victims lived with feelings of humiliation. "In my view a lot of people will say, 'you shared a private image out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she noted. "I demand respect, I expect consideration, and I expect trust, and I fail to understand why those are up for debate," she added. "The fact that those images could be then shared 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 someone being an abuser." Madelaine hopes her technology will prevent potential intimate image abusers non-consensually. An Unconventional Path Madelaine has been working as a dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and always found her work empowering and fulfilling. "It's me 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. "Some believe it's unusual but I view it similarly to a personal trainer or an accountant providing a service," she added. She welcomes being a unique figure in the technology sector. "I understand that it's unconventional, it's remarkable to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a tech company, but it required someone who has experienced it firsthand to know the loopholes and the modifications that were necessary," she stated. She insisted she was not technically inclined and was managed to build her company after a lot of sleepless nights, investigation and "consulting experts" who understand tech. Understanding the Tech Solution Image Angel can be implemented on any online platform where people exchange photos, for instance dating apps, social media and online sites. When an image is accessed by a viewer, it is seamlessly tagged with an undetectable digital marker which is specific to that viewer. This invisible watermark is encoded within the digital file 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 circulated non-consensually, as long as the platform you used has the technology embedded, the sharer's information will be encoded in the image and can be retrieved by a forensic expert so legal steps can follow. Currently, one service has adopted her tech and she's in discussions with many others. An Established Method for a New Purpose "The system is already in use in Hollywood, it already exists in live television so this is not brand new technology, it's just a novel use and a new system," said Madelaine. "And we've tested it, we're collaborating 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 deploy it widely," she continued. She said she hoped the technology would also act as a deterrent to would-be perpetrators. Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame An expert from a support service said she had seen first-hand the panic, distress and self-blame this abuse inflicted on victims. "When that guilt is reinforced by a uninformed acquaintance or professional who says 'what did you expect?' that self blame can really be deepened so it's really important that the response a victim receives is that they have not done anything wrong," she stated. She noted it was inspiring that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to bring about change, adding: "It is vital to have this multi-layered approach towards tackling 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 been victims of having their intimate images distributed non-consensually. TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when photographs of her in her underwear were circulated within her town. It was the first of several incidents Jess endured in her teens and 20s that would later inform her advocacy work. "It took so long, 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 this crime from the survivors to the perpetrators. "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 always be where the blame is," she affirmed.