🔗 Share this article From BDSM Practitioner to Tech Founder: An Unconventional Campaign To Combat Revenge Porn Madelaine Thomas says her personal experience of experiencing her private photos leaked gives her a unique insight as a tech founder. BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas represents far from your typical tech founder. After multiple instances of clients distributing her intimate photographs, she was "angry enough to do something about it" and looked to tech solutions for a solution. "Those were beautiful pictures, I'm unapologetic of the photographs, I'm embarrassed of the way that they were used against me by someone who I don't know," stated Madelaine. Madelaine has received multiple accolades including the Tech Safety Innovation award at a prominent safety summit. Just over a year since founding her company, Image Angel, which employs covert digital tracking to track perpetrators, has garnered significant recognition and was cited as exemplary procedure in an government-commissioned study recently. This marks 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, often referred to as image-based abuse, is a punishable crime with perpetrators risking two years in prison. It is far from an issue uniquely experienced by those in the sex industry. A study suggests that approximately 1.42% of the UK female population is affected by this form of abuse each year. Madelaine, thirty-seven, explained survivors lived with shame and stigma. "In my view a lot of people will comment, 'you shared a private image out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she noted. "I demand respect, I expect respect, and I expect confidence, and I fail to understand why those are negotiable," she added. "The fact that those images could be then shared in my community or with people I love and employed to cause them pain, that's unacceptable, that's not my choice, that's not my mistake, that's an individual committing abuse." Madelaine hopes her tech will prevent potential intimate image abusers non-consensually. A Unique Journey Madelaine has been practicing as a dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and always 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 said. "Some believe it's strange but I don't see it any differently to a personal trainer or an financial advisor 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 founder of a technology firm, but it required someone who has experienced it firsthand 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 managed to build her company after many sleepless nights, investigation and "bugging people" who know about tech. Understanding the Tech Solution Image Angel can be used by any digital service where people exchange photos, for instance dating apps, social media 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 encoded within 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, as long as the platform you posted it on has the system integrated, the sharer's information will be encoded in the image and can be extracted by a forensic expert so action can be taken. To date, one service has implemented her tech and she's in discussions with several more. Proven Technology, New Application "This technology already exists in Hollywood, 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 firm that has 30 years experience in developing technology 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 hoped the technology would also act as a deterrent to would-be intimate image abusers. Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame An expert from a leading helpline said she had seen directly the trauma and guilt this abuse caused for 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 reinforced so it's crucial that the support somebody is provided with is that they have not done anything wrong," she emphasized. She added it was fantastic that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to create solutions, adding: "It is really important to have this multi-layered approach towards tackling tech facilitated abuse, because no one tool is going to be able to solve this problem, not just support services, it needs to be this multi-layered response." Madelaine Thomas and TV presenter Jess Davies have been victims of 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 town. It was the first of several incidents Jess endured in her teens and 20s that would later shape her advocacy work. "It required years, 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 survivors to the offenders. "It isn't a crime to willingly share an image to someone," stated Jess. "However, it is illegal to distribute that non-consensually and I think that should invariably be where the responsibility is," she affirmed.