From BDSM Practitioner to Tech Founder: A Unique Fight To Combat Intimate Image Abuse

Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas represents far from your standard tech founder. Following repeated instances of individuals distributing her private explicit images, she was "sufficiently outraged to do something about it" and looked to technology for a solution.

"Those were beautiful pictures, I'm not ashamed of the pictures, I'm ashamed of the way that they were used against me by an individual who I have never met," explained Madelaine.

Little over a year since founding her company, Image Angel, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to identify abusers, has won several awards and was recommended as exemplary procedure in an independent pornography review recently.

This marks a significant shift 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, often referred to as image-based abuse, 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 adult entertainment sector. A report suggests that approximately 1.42% of the women in the UK is impacted by this form of abuse each year.

Madelaine, thirty-seven, said victims endured feelings of humiliation. "In my view a lot of people will comment, 'you shared a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she said.

"I demand respect, I expect respect, and I expect confidence, and I fail to understand why those are negotiable," she continued. "The fact that those images could be subsequently distributed where I live or with my loved ones and employed to cause them pain, that's beyond, that's not my choice, that's not my mistake, that's someone committing abuse."

An Unconventional Path

Madelaine has been working as a professional dominatrix, primarily online, for 10 years and consistently found her work empowering and fulfilling. "I am as a woman in control, a woman who is confident and powerful, offering 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 accountant providing a service," she remarked.

She welcomes being a unique figure in the world of tech. "I understand that it's bizarre, 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 experienced it firsthand to know the flaws and the changes that were necessary," she explained.

She insisted she was not technically inclined and was managed to build her company after many late nights, research and "consulting experts" who understand tech.

How Does the Technology Work?

Image Angel can be implemented on any digital service where people share images, for instance social connection apps, social networks and online sites.

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 different camera.

It means that if you find out your image has been circulated non-consensually, providing 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.

Currently, one service has adopted her tech and she's in talks with several more.

Proven Technology, New Application

"This technology is already in use in Hollywood, it already exists in live television so this is not an untested concept, it's just a novel use and a new system," said Madelaine.

"And we've tested it, we're partnering with a company 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 believed the technology would also act as a preventive measure to potential perpetrators.

Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame

An expert from a support service commented she had seen first-hand the panic, distress and self-blame this abuse caused for victims.

"If that self-blame is compounded by a uninformed acquaintance or service who says 'well, why did you take those images in the first place?' that self blame can really be deepened so it's really important that the support a victim receives is that they have not done anything wrong," she stated.

She added it was fantastic that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to bring about change, saying: "It is vital to have this comprehensive strategy towards tackling tech facilitated abuse, because no one tool is going to be able to solve this problem, no one helpline, it needs to be this multi-layered response."

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 youth that would later inform her women's rights campaigning.

"It required years, an excessive amount of time 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 this crime from the victims to the perpetrators. "There is no offence to consensually send an image 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 affirmed.