đź”— Share this article Transitioning from Dominatrix to Tech Founder: An Unconventional Campaign To Combat Intimate Image Abuse Madelaine Thomas says her first-hand ordeal of experiencing her private photos leaked offers her a unique insight as a technology entrepreneur. BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas is not at all your average tech founder. After repeated instances of clients leaking her intimate photographs, she felt "sufficiently outraged to do something about it" and looked to tech solutions for a solution. "These 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 don't know," said Madelaine. Madelaine has won multiple accolades such as the Tech Safety Innovation award at a major industry conference. Just over a year since launching her company, Image Angel, which employs covert digital tracking to track abusers, has garnered significant recognition and was recommended as exemplary procedure in an independent pornography review recently. This represents quite a departure from her previous career in offering BDSM services, working with clients in the world of BDSM. The Pervasive Problem The non-consensual sharing of private images, commonly known 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 UK female population is impacted by this form of abuse on an annual basis. Madelaine, 37, explained victims lived with feelings of humiliation. "I think 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 confidence, and I fail to understand why those are up for debate," she added. "The reality that those images could be then shared where I live or with people I love and employed to cause them pain, that's beyond, that's not my choice, that's not an error on my part, that's someone committing abuse." Madelaine aims her technology will deter would-be individuals from sharing photos without consent. A Unique Journey Madelaine has been working as a dominatrix, primarily online, for 10 years and consistently found her work liberating and satisfying. "It's me as a dominant woman, a woman who is confident and powerful, offering my body as a treat to someone because I wish to," she described. "People think it's strange but I don't see it any differently to a personal trainer or an accountant giving advice," she added. She welcomes being a unique figure in the technology sector. "I understand that it's bizarre, it's crazy to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now a creator of a technology firm, but it took someone who has been through it to know the flaws and the changes that needed to happen," she stated. She maintained she was not in the least bit techy and was able to build her company after many late nights, investigation and "bugging people" who understand tech. How Does the Technology Work? Image Angel can be used by any digital service where people share images, for instance dating apps, social media and websites. When an image is accessed by a user, it is seamlessly tagged with an invisible forensic watermark which is specific to that viewer. This covert marker is encoded within the copy of the image itself and can withstand screen shots, being altered and being re-captured with a different camera. It means that if you find out your image has been circulated without your consent, as long as the service you posted it on 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 the film industry, it is employed in live television so this is not an untested concept, it's just a novel use and a different framework," said Madelaine. "We have validated it, we're collaborating with a company that has decades of expertise in tech development so we are confident that this is solid and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she added. She said she believed the technology would also act as a preventive measure to potential perpetrators. Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame An advocate from a leading helpline said she had seen directly the trauma and guilt intimate image abuse caused for victims. "When that guilt is reinforced by a uninformed acquaintance or service who says 'what did you expect?' that guilt can really be reinforced so it's crucial that the response a victim receives is that they have not done anything wrong," she stated. She noted it was fantastic that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to create solutions, adding: "It is vital to have this comprehensive strategy towards tackling tech facilitated gender-based abuse, because no one tool is going to be able to solve this problem, no one helpline, it needs to be this integrated effort." Both women have experienced having their private photos shared without their consent. TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when images of her in a state of undress were circulated within her local community. It was the first of several incidents Jess experienced in her youth that would later inform her advocacy work. "It required years, too long for someone to tell me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that was wrong'," recalled Jess. She too is passionate about eliminating the shame of intimate image abuse from the victims to the offenders. "It isn't a crime to willingly share an image to someone," said Jess. "However, it is illegal to circulate that non-consensually and I think that should invariably be where the blame is," she concluded.