Transitioning from BDSM Practitioner to Tech Founder: An Unconventional Fight To Combat Intimate Image Abuse

Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas embodies not at all your typical tech founder. After multiple instances of clients leaking her private explicit images, she was "sufficiently outraged to take action" and looked to technology for a solution.

"Those were striking images, I'm not ashamed of the pictures, I'm ashamed of the manner 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 perpetrators, has garnered significant recognition and was cited as best practice in an government-commissioned study earlier this year.

This represents a significant shift from her previous career in offering BDSM services, working with clients in the world of kink and bondage.

The Pervasive Problem

The non-consensual sharing of private images, often referred to as revenge porn, 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 suggests that approximately 1.42% of the UK female population is affected by intimate image abuse on an annual basis.

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

"I demand respect, I expect respect, and I expect confidence, and I don't see why those are negotiable," she continued. "The fact that those images could be then shared where I live or with people I love and employed to cause them pain, that's unacceptable, that's not my choice, that's not an error on my part, that's an individual being an abuser."

A Unique Journey

Madelaine has been practicing as a professional dominatrix, primarily online, for 10 years and always found her work empowering and fulfilling. "It's me as a woman in control, a woman who is confident and powerful, giving my body as a gift to someone of my own volition," she described.

"People think it's strange but I view it similarly to a personal trainer or an accountant giving advice," she added.

She welcomes being something of an anomaly in the technology sector. "I know that it's bizarre, it's crazy to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a creator of a technology firm, but it took someone who has been through it to understand the loopholes and the changes that needed to happen," she stated.

She insisted she was not technically inclined and was able to build her company after many sleepless nights, research and "bugging people" who know about tech.

How Does the Technology Work?

Image Angel can be used by any online platform where people exchange photos, for instance social connection apps, social networks 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 survive screenshots, being altered and being photographed with a secondary device.

It ensures that if you discover your image has been circulated without your consent, providing the platform you used has the system integrated, the viewer's details will be encoded in the image and can be retrieved by a forensic expert so action can be taken.

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

An Established Method for a New Purpose

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

"We have validated it, we're partnering with a firm that has decades of expertise in tech development so we are confident that this is solid and what we now need to do is test it at scale," she continued.

She expressed hope she believed the technology would also act as a deterrent to potential intimate image abusers.

Changing the Narrative

An advocate from a support service commented she had seen first-hand the trauma and guilt this abuse caused for victims.

"If that self-blame is compounded by a uninformed acquaintance or professional who says 'what did you expect?' that self blame can really be deepened so it's really important that the response a victim receives is that they have committed no error," she emphasized.

She added it was fantastic that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to bring about change, 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 solve this problem, no one helpline, it needs to be this integrated effort."

TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when images of her in her underwear were shared around her local community. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess endured in her youth that would later shape her women's rights campaigning.

"It required years, an excessive amount of time for someone to tell me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," said Jess.

She too is dedicated to removing the stigma of intimate image abuse from the victims to the offenders. "It isn't a crime to willingly share an image to someone," stated Jess.

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