🔗 Share this article From BDSM Practitioner to Technology Entrepreneur: A Unique Fight Against Intimate Image Abuse Madelaine Thomas explains her first-hand ordeal of experiencing her intimate images leaked provides her a unique insight as a technology entrepreneur. BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas represents not at all your average tech founder. After repeated occurrences of clients leaking her intimate photographs, she was "sufficiently outraged to take action" and looked to technology for a solution. "These were beautiful pictures, I'm unapologetic of the pictures, I'm embarrassed of the manner that they were weaponized by someone who I don't know," stated Madelaine. Madelaine has received multiple accolades including 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 abusers, has won several awards and was recommended as exemplary procedure in an independent pornography review recently. This represents a significant shift from her previous career in offering consensual sexual encounters, dominating clients in the realms of kink and bondage. The Pervasive Problem Intimate image abuse, commonly known as image-based abuse, is a criminal offence 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 study indicates that around 1.42% of the women in the UK is impacted by intimate image abuse each year. Madelaine, 37, explained survivors lived with feelings of humiliation. "In my view a lot of people will comment, 'you put a private image out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she said. "I expect dignity, I expect consideration, and I expect confidence, and I don't see why those are up for debate," she added. "The reality that those images could be then shared in my community or with my loved ones 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 hopes her tech will prevent would-be individuals from sharing photos non-consensually. A Unique Journey Madelaine has been practicing as a dominatrix, primarily online, for a decade and always found her work empowering and fulfilling. "I am as a dominant woman, a woman who is empowered and strong, giving my body as a treat to someone because I wish to," she described. "People think it's strange but I view it similarly to a nutritionist or an accountant providing a service," she remarked. She embraces being something of an anomaly in the world of tech. "I understand that it's unconventional, it's remarkable to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a creator of a tech company, but it took someone who has been through it to understand the flaws and the modifications that needed to happen," she explained. She maintained she was not technically inclined and was managed to build her company after many sleepless nights, research and "consulting experts" who understand tech. How Does the Technology Work? Image Angel can be used by any online platform where people share images, for instance dating 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 embedded into the digital file of the image itself and can survive screen shots, being edited and being photographed 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 technology embedded, the sharer's information will be hidden within the image and can be extracted by a data recovery specialist so action can be taken. To date, one service has adopted her tech and she's in discussions with many others. An Established Method for a New Purpose "The system is already in use in the film industry, it is employed in sports broadcasting so this is not brand new technology, it's just a new application 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 know that this is reliable and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she continued. She expressed hope she hoped the technology would also act as a deterrent to potential perpetrators. Changing the Narrative An advocate from a support service said she had seen directly the trauma and guilt this abuse inflicted on victims. "When that guilt is reinforced 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 response somebody is provided with is that they have committed no error," she stated. She noted it was inspiring that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, saying: "It is really important to have this comprehensive strategy towards addressing technology-enabled gender-based 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." Both women have been victims of experiencing their private photos distributed non-consensually. TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when images of her in a state of undress were shared around her local community. It was the first of several incidents Jess endured in her teens and 20s that would later inform her advocacy work. "It took so long, an excessive amount of time for someone to say to 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 perpetrators. "There is no offence to consensually send an photo to someone," stated Jess. "However, it is illegal to circulate that non-consensually and I think that should always be where the blame is," she concluded.