đŸ”— Share this article From BDSM Practitioner to Technology Entrepreneur: A Unique Battle To Combat Intimate Image Abuse Madelaine Thomas says her personal experience of experiencing her private photos shared without consent gives her a distinct perspective as a tech founder. Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas embodies far from your average startup entrepreneur. After multiple occurrences of clients leaking her intimate photographs, she felt "sufficiently outraged to do something about it" and looked to technology for a solution. "These were striking images, I'm not ashamed of the pictures, I'm embarrassed of the way that they were weaponized by someone who I don't know," explained Madelaine. Madelaine has received multiple accolades including the Tech Safety Innovation award at a prominent safety summit. Little over a year after launching her venture, Image Angel, which employs invisible forensic watermarking to track perpetrators, has won several awards and was cited as exemplary procedure in an independent pornography review earlier this year. This represents quite a departure from her previous career in offering BDSM services, dominating clients in the world of BDSM. 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 not at all an issue exclusively faced by those in the sex industry. A study indicates that around 1.42% of the women in the UK is impacted by this form of abuse on an annual basis. Madelaine, thirty-seven, said survivors 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 said. "I demand dignity, I expect consideration, and I expect trust, and I don't see why those are up for debate," she continued. "The fact 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 aims her tech will deter potential individuals from sharing photos non-consensually. An Unconventional Path Madelaine has been practicing as a professional dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and consistently found her work liberating and satisfying. "I am as a dominant woman, a woman who is confident and powerful, offering my body as a gift to someone because I wish to," she described. "Some believe it's strange but I view it similarly to a personal trainer or an accountant giving advice," she remarked. She welcomes being something of an anomaly in the technology sector. "I understand that it's unconventional, it's crazy to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a tech company, but it required someone who has been through it to understand the flaws and the changes that needed to happen," she stated. She insisted she was not technically inclined and was managed to build her company after a lot of sleepless nights, research and "bugging people" who know about tech. Understanding the Tech Solution Image Angel can be implemented on any online platform where people share images, for instance social connection apps, social media and websites. When an image is viewed by a viewer, it is automatically embedded with an undetectable digital marker which is unique to them. This invisible watermark is encoded within the digital file of the image itself and can survive screenshots, being altered and being re-captured with a secondary device. It means that if you discover your image has been shared non-consensually, as long as the service you used has the technology embedded, the sharer's information will be encoded in the image and can be extracted by a data recovery specialist so legal steps can follow. To date, one service has implemented her tech and she's in talks with several more. Proven Technology, New Application "The system already exists in the film industry, it is employed in live television so this is not an untested concept, it's just a new application and a new system," said 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 deploy it widely," she continued. She said she hoped the technology would also act as a preventive measure to potential intimate image abusers. Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame An advocate from a support service said she had seen first-hand the panic, distress and self-blame intimate image abuse inflicted on victims. "If that self-blame is compounded by a misinformed friend or service who says 'what did you expect?' that self blame can really be deepened so it's crucial that the response a victim receives is that they have committed no error," she stated. She noted it was inspiring that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to bring about change, adding: "It is vital to have this comprehensive strategy 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 without their consent. TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when images of her in her underwear were circulated within her town. It was the first of several incidents Jess experienced in her youth that would later inform her women's rights campaigning. "It took so long, an excessive amount of time for someone to say to me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that was wrong'," recalled Jess. She too is passionate about eliminating the shame of this crime from the survivors to the perpetrators. "There is no offence to willingly share an photo to someone," stated Jess. "But it is a crime to distribute that without consent and I think that should always be where the responsibility is," she affirmed.