From Dominatrix to Technology Entrepreneur: A Unique Fight Against Revenge Porn

Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas embodies far from your standard tech founder. Following repeated instances of clients distributing her private explicit images, she felt "sufficiently outraged to do something about it" and looked to tech solutions for a solution.

"Those were beautiful pictures, I'm not ashamed of the pictures, I'm ashamed of the manner that they were weaponized by someone who I have never met," explained Madelaine.

Just over a year since launching her company, Image Angel, which employs invisible forensic watermarking to track perpetrators, has won several awards and was recommended as exemplary procedure in an government-commissioned study recently.

This represents quite a departure from her background in offering BDSM services, working with clients in the realms of BDSM.

A Widespread Issue

The non-consensual sharing of private images, often referred to as revenge porn, is a criminal offence with offenders risking two years in prison.

It is not at all an issue exclusively faced by those in the sex industry. A report indicates that around 1.42% of the women in the UK is impacted by this form of abuse each year.

Madelaine, 37, explained victims lived with shame and stigma. "In my view a lot of people will say, 'you put a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she noted.

"I expect dignity, I expect respect, and I expect confidence, and I fail to understand why those are up for debate," she continued. "The reality that those images could be subsequently distributed 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 my mistake, that's someone being an abuser."

A Unique Journey

Madelaine has been working as a dominatrix, primarily online, for a decade and always found her work liberating and satisfying. "I am as a woman in control, a woman who is confident and powerful, offering my body as a treat to someone of my own volition," she said.

"People think it's unusual but I view it similarly to a nutritionist or an financial advisor providing a service," she added.

She welcomes being a unique figure in the technology sector. "I know that it's unconventional, it's remarkable to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a technology firm, but it required someone who has been through it to know the flaws and the modifications that were necessary," she stated.

She insisted she was not technically inclined and was able to build her company after a lot of sleepless nights, research and "consulting experts" who know about tech.

How Does the Technology Work?

Image Angel can be used by any digital service where people exchange photos, for instance social connection apps, social networks and online sites.

When an image is accessed by a viewer, it is seamlessly tagged with an undetectable digital marker which is specific to that viewer.

This invisible watermark is encoded within the digital file of the image itself and can survive screen shots, being altered and being photographed with a different camera.

It means that if you find out your image has been shared without your consent, as long as the service 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 legal steps can follow.

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

An Established Method for a New Purpose

"The system is already in use in the film industry, it already exists 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 decades of expertise in developing technology 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.

Changing the Narrative

An advocate from a leading helpline said she had seen directly the trauma and guilt intimate image abuse caused for victims.

"If that self-blame is compounded by a misinformed friend 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 fantastic that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to create solutions, saying: "It is vital to have this comprehensive strategy towards addressing tech facilitated gender-based abuse, because a single solution is going to be able to solve this problem, not just support services, it needs to be this multi-layered response."

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 experienced in her teens and 20s that would later shape her advocacy work.

"It took so long, too long for someone to say to me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," recalled Jess.

She too is passionate about eliminating the shame of this crime from the survivors to the perpetrators. "There is no offence to consensually send an image to someone," said Jess.

"However, it is illegal to distribute that without consent and I think that should always be where the blame is," she affirmed.