🔗 Share this article From Professional Dominatrix to Technology Entrepreneur: An Unconventional Fight To Combat Intimate Image Abuse Madelaine Thomas explains her personal experience of having her private photos leaked provides her a distinct perspective as a tech founder. BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas represents not at all your typical startup entrepreneur. After multiple instances of individuals distributing her private explicit images, she felt "angry enough to do something about it" and looked to tech solutions for a solution. "Those were striking images, I'm not ashamed of the photographs, I'm embarrassed of the way that they were used against me by an individual who I don't know," stated Madelaine. Madelaine has received several awards including the Tech Safety Innovation award at a major safety summit. Little over a year after founding her venture, Image Angel, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to identify abusers, has won several awards and was recommended as exemplary procedure in an government-commissioned study recently. This marks quite a departure from her previous career in offering BDSM services, working with clients in the realms of BDSM. A Widespread Issue Intimate image abuse, commonly known as image-based abuse, is a punishable crime with offenders risking two years in prison. It is not at all an issue exclusively faced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A study suggests that around 1.42% of the women in the UK is affected by intimate image abuse each year. Madelaine, thirty-seven, explained victims endured shame and stigma. "In my view a lot of people will say, 'you put a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she noted. "I expect 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 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 hopes her technology will prevent potential intimate image abusers non-consensually. A Unique Journey Madelaine has been working as a professional dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and always found her work liberating and satisfying. "It's me as a dominant woman, a woman who is confident and powerful, giving my body as a treat to someone because I wish to," she described. "People think it's unusual but I don't see it any differently to a personal trainer or an accountant giving advice," she added. She embraces being a unique figure in the technology sector. "I know that it's unconventional, it's crazy to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a creator of a tech company, but it took someone who has experienced it firsthand to understand the flaws and the changes that were necessary," she stated. She maintained she was not technically inclined and was able 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 used by any online platform where people share images, for instance social connection apps, social media and websites. When an image is accessed by a viewer, it is automatically embedded with an undetectable digital marker which is specific to that viewer. This covert marker 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 find out your image has been circulated without your consent, as long as the service you used has the system integrated, the viewer's details will be hidden within the image and can be retrieved by a forensic expert so action can be taken. To date, one platform has implemented her tech and she's in talks with many others. Proven Technology, New Application "This technology already exists in the film industry, it already exists in live television so this is not an untested concept, it's just a new application and a new system," explained Madelaine. "We have validated it, we're collaborating 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 test it at scale," she continued. She expressed hope she believed the technology would also act as a preventive measure to would-be perpetrators. Changing the Narrative An advocate from a support service commented she had seen directly the trauma and guilt intimate image abuse inflicted on victims. "If that self-blame is reinforced by a uninformed acquaintance or service who says 'well, why did you take those images in the first place?' that guilt can really be reinforced so it's crucial that the support somebody is provided with is that they have committed no error," she emphasized. She added it was fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, saying: "It is vital to have this multi-layered approach towards addressing tech facilitated gender-based abuse, because a single solution is going to be able to tackle this alone, not just support services, it needs to be this multi-layered response." Madelaine Thomas and TV presenter Jess Davies have experienced experiencing their intimate images distributed non-consensually. TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when photographs of her in her underwear were shared around her local community. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess experienced in her teens and 20s that would later shape her advocacy work. "It took so long, too long for someone to say to me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," said Jess. She too is passionate about removing the stigma of this crime from the survivors to the perpetrators. "It isn't a crime to consensually send an image to someone," stated Jess. "But it is a crime to distribute that without consent and I think that should invariably be where the blame is," she affirmed.