🔗 Share this article Transitioning from BDSM Practitioner to Tech Founder: A Unique Campaign Against Revenge Porn Madelaine Thomas states her first-hand ordeal of having her intimate images leaked offers her a distinct perspective as a tech founder. BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas represents far from your typical tech founder. After multiple instances of individuals distributing her private explicit images, she felt "sufficiently outraged to do something about it" and looked to tech solutions for a solution. "Those 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," explained Madelaine. Madelaine has received multiple accolades including the Tech Safety Innovation award at a prominent safety summit. Just over a year since founding her venture, Image Angel, which employs invisible forensic watermarking to track abusers, has garnered significant recognition and was recommended as best practice in an independent pornography review earlier this year. This represents quite a departure from her previous career in offering consensual sexual encounters, working with clients in the realms of kink and bondage. A Widespread Issue Intimate image abuse, commonly known as revenge porn, is a punishable crime with offenders facing up to two years in prison. It is far from an issue exclusively faced by those in the sex industry. A study suggests that around 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by this form of abuse each year. Madelaine, 37, explained victims endured shame and stigma. "I think a lot of people will say, 'you put a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she said. "I expect respect, I expect respect, and I expect trust, and I fail to understand why those are negotiable," she added. "The reality that those images could be subsequently distributed where I live or with people I love and used to hurt them, that's beyond, that's not a decision I made, that's not my mistake, that's an individual being an abuser." Madelaine hopes her tech will deter potential intimate image abusers without consent. A Unique Journey Madelaine has been working as a professional dominatrix, mainly online, for a decade and consistently found her work liberating and satisfying. "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 said. "Some believe it's unusual but I view it similarly to a nutritionist or an accountant giving advice," she added. She embraces being something of an anomaly in the world of tech. "I understand that it's unconventional, 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 loopholes and the modifications that needed to happen," she explained. She maintained she was not technically inclined and was managed to build her company after a lot of late nights, investigation 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 viewed by a viewer, it is seamlessly tagged 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 withstand screen shots, being edited and being photographed with a secondary device. It means that if you find out your image has been circulated non-consensually, as long as the platform you posted it on has the system integrated, the sharer's information will be hidden within the image and can be retrieved by a data recovery specialist so action can be taken. 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 the film industry, it is employed in live television so this is not brand new technology, it's just a novel use 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 continued. She said she hoped the technology would also act as a deterrent to would-be perpetrators. Changing the Narrative An advocate from a leading helpline commented she had seen directly the trauma and guilt this abuse inflicted on victims. "When that guilt is compounded by a misinformed friend or professional who says 'what did you expect?' that self blame can really be deepened so it's crucial that the support somebody is provided with is that they have committed no error," she emphasized. She added it was inspiring that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to create solutions, adding: "It is really important to have this multi-layered approach towards addressing tech facilitated gender-based abuse, because a single solution is going to be able to solve this problem, not just support services, it needs to be this integrated effort." Madelaine Thomas and TV presenter Jess Davies have been victims of having their intimate images distributed non-consensually. TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when photographs of her in a state of undress were shared around her local community. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess endured in her teens and 20s that would later shape her advocacy work. "It required years, too long for someone to say to me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," recalled Jess. She too is passionate about eliminating the shame of intimate image abuse from the survivors to the perpetrators. "It isn't a crime to consensually send an image to someone," said Jess. "However, it is illegal to circulate that without consent and I think that should invariably be where the blame is," she affirmed.