Transitioning from BDSM Practitioner to Technology Entrepreneur: A Unique Battle To Combat Intimate Image Abuse

Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas represents far from your average tech founder. After multiple occurrences of clients distributing her intimate photographs, she was "sufficiently outraged to do something about it" and turned to tech solutions for a solution.

"Those were striking images, I'm not ashamed of the photographs, I'm embarrassed of the manner that they were weaponized by an individual who I don't know," explained Madelaine.

Just over a year since founding her company, Image Angel, which uses covert digital tracking to track perpetrators, has garnered significant recognition and was recommended as best practice in an government-commissioned study earlier this year.

This represents a significant shift from her background in providing consensual sexual encounters, working with clients in the world of BDSM.

The Pervasive Problem

The non-consensual sharing of private images, commonly known as revenge porn, is a punishable crime with offenders facing up to two years in prison.

It is far from an issue uniquely experienced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A study suggests that around 1.42% of the women in the UK is impacted by intimate image abuse each year.

Madelaine, 37, explained victims lived with shame and stigma. "In my view a lot of people will comment, 'you put a private image out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she said.

"I demand dignity, I expect consideration, and I expect confidence, and I fail to understand why those are negotiable," she continued. "The fact that those images could be then shared in my community or with people I love 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 someone being an abuser."

A Unique Journey

Madelaine has been practicing as a dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and always found her work liberating and satisfying. "I am as a dominant woman, a woman who is empowered and strong, offering my body as a gift to someone of my own volition," she said.

"Some believe it's strange but I don't see it any differently to a nutritionist or an accountant giving advice," she remarked.

She embraces being a unique figure in the world of tech. "I understand that it's bizarre, it's remarkable to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a technology firm, but it required someone who has been through it to understand the loopholes and the changes that needed to happen," 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.

Understanding the Tech Solution

Image Angel can be implemented on any online platform where people exchange photos, for instance social connection apps, social media and websites.

When an image is accessed by a user, it is automatically embedded with an invisible forensic watermark which is specific to that viewer.

This invisible watermark is embedded into the digital file of the image itself and can withstand screenshots, being edited and being photographed with a different camera.

It means that if you discover your image has been shared without your consent, providing the service you posted it on has the system integrated, the sharer's information will be hidden within the image and can be extracted by a data recovery specialist so action can be taken.

Currently, one platform has implemented her tech and she's in discussions with several more.

Proven Technology, New Application

"The system already exists in Hollywood, it already exists 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 partnering with a company that has decades of expertise in tech development so we know that this is solid and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she added.

She expressed hope she believed the technology would also act as a preventive measure to would-be perpetrators.

Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame

An expert from a leading helpline commented she had seen first-hand the panic, distress and self-blame intimate image abuse inflicted on victims.

"If that self-blame is reinforced by a uninformed acquaintance or service who says 'what did you expect?' that guilt can really be reinforced so it's really important that the response somebody is provided with is that they have committed no error," she emphasized.

She noted it was inspiring that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, adding: "It is vital to have this multi-layered approach towards addressing tech facilitated abuse, because a single solution is going to be able to tackle this alone, no one helpline, it needs to be this integrated effort."

TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when photographs of her in her underwear were shared around her town. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess endured 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 shouldn't have happened'," said Jess.

She too is passionate about removing the stigma of this crime from the victims to the perpetrators. "There is no offence to consensually send an photo to someone," said Jess.

"But it is a crime to circulate that non-consensually and I think that should always be where the blame is," she concluded.