🔗 Share this article From Professional Dominatrix to Technology Entrepreneur: A Unique Battle Against Intimate Image Abuse Madelaine Thomas explains her personal experience of having her intimate images leaked gives her a unique insight as a technology entrepreneur. Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas embodies not at all your typical tech founder. After repeated occurrences of clients leaking her intimate photographs, she felt "angry enough to take action" and looked to technology for a solution. "Those were striking images, I'm not ashamed of the pictures, I'm embarrassed of the way that they were used against me by someone who I don't know," said Madelaine. Madelaine has received several awards such as the Innovation in Tech Safety award at a major safety summit. Little over a year since founding her venture, Image Angel, which uses covert digital tracking to track perpetrators, has won several awards and was cited as best practice in an independent pornography review earlier this year. This marks a significant shift from her background in providing consensual sexual encounters, dominating clients in the world of kink and bondage. A Widespread Issue The non-consensual sharing of private images, commonly known as image-based abuse, is a punishable crime with perpetrators facing up to two years in prison. It is far from an issue exclusively faced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A study indicates that around 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by intimate image abuse each year. Madelaine, 37, said victims lived with feelings of humiliation. "I think a lot of people will comment, 'you put a private image out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she noted. "I demand respect, I expect consideration, and I expect trust, and I fail to understand why those are negotiable," she added. "The fact that those images could be subsequently distributed in my community or with my loved ones and used to hurt them, that's beyond, that's not my choice, that's not an error on my part, that's an individual committing abuse." Madelaine aims her tech will prevent potential individuals from sharing photos without consent. An Unconventional Path Madelaine has been working as a professional dominatrix, mainly online, for a decade and always found her work empowering and fulfilling. "It's me as a dominant woman, a woman who is confident and powerful, giving my body as a gift to someone because I wish to," she described. "Some believe it's unusual but I don't see it any differently to a nutritionist or an accountant giving advice," she added. She welcomes being something of an anomaly in the world of tech. "I know 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 required someone who has experienced it firsthand to know the loopholes and the changes that were necessary," she explained. She maintained she was not in the least bit techy and was able to build her company after many late nights, investigation and "consulting experts" who understand tech. How Does the Technology Work? Image Angel can be used by any digital service where people exchange photos, for instance dating apps, social media and websites. When an image is accessed by a viewer, it is seamlessly tagged with an undetectable digital marker which is unique to them. This invisible watermark is embedded into 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 find out your image has been circulated non-consensually, providing the platform you posted it on has the system integrated, the viewer's details will be hidden within the image and can be retrieved by a data recovery specialist so action can be taken. Currently, one platform has implemented her tech and she's in discussions with many others. Proven Technology, New Application "This technology already exists in the film industry, it is employed in sports broadcasting 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 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 continued. She said she believed the technology would also act as a deterrent to would-be perpetrators. Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame An advocate from a support service commented she had seen directly the trauma and guilt this abuse inflicted on victims. "If that self-blame is reinforced by a uninformed acquaintance or service who says 'what did you expect?' that self blame can really be deepened so it's crucial that the response somebody is provided with is that they have not done anything wrong," she emphasized. She noted it was fantastic that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to bring about change, 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, no one helpline, it needs to be this multi-layered response." 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 circulated within her local community. It was the first of several incidents Jess experienced in her youth that would later shape 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 was wrong'," recalled Jess. She too is passionate about eliminating the shame of this crime from the victims to the offenders. "There is no offence to consensually send an image to someone," said Jess. "However, it is illegal to distribute that non-consensually and I think that should always be where the responsibility is," she affirmed.