🔗 Share this article Transitioning from BDSM Practitioner to Technology Entrepreneur: A Unique Fight To Combat Intimate Image Abuse Madelaine Thomas says her first-hand ordeal of experiencing her private photos leaked gives her a distinct perspective as a technology entrepreneur. BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas embodies not at all your average tech founder. Following repeated instances of clients leaking her private explicit images, she was "angry enough to take action" and turned to technology for answers. "These were beautiful pictures, I'm not ashamed of the photographs, I'm embarrassed of the way that they were used against me by someone who I have never met," said Madelaine. Madelaine has received multiple accolades including the Innovation in Tech Safety award at a prominent industry conference. Little over a year after launching her company, Image Angel, which uses covert digital tracking to track abusers, has won several awards and was recommended as best practice in an government-commissioned study earlier this year. This marks quite a departure from her previous career in providing BDSM services, dominating clients in the realms of kink and bondage. A Widespread Issue Intimate image abuse, commonly known as image-based abuse, is a criminal offence with perpetrators risking two years in prison. It is far from an issue uniquely experienced by those in the sex industry. A study indicates that approximately 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by intimate image abuse on an annual basis. Madelaine, 37, said victims lived with feelings of humiliation. "I think a lot of people will comment, 'you put a private image out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she said. "I demand dignity, I expect consideration, and I expect trust, 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 employed to cause them pain, that's unacceptable, that's not a decision I made, that's not an error on my part, that's someone being an abuser." Madelaine aims her technology will deter would-be individuals from sharing photos without consent. A Unique Journey Madelaine has been practicing as a dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and always found her work empowering and fulfilling. "I am as a dominant woman, a woman who is confident and powerful, offering my body as a treat to someone because I wish to," she described. "Some believe it's unusual 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 understand that it's bizarre, 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 changes that were necessary," she stated. She maintained she was not technically inclined and was able 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 digital service where people share images, for instance social connection apps, social media and online sites. When an image is viewed by a user, it is seamlessly tagged with an undetectable digital marker which is specific to that viewer. This covert marker is embedded into the copy of the image itself and can survive screenshots, being edited and being photographed with a different camera. It means that if you discover your image has been circulated non-consensually, providing the service you posted it on 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. To date, one service has adopted her tech and she's in discussions with several more. An Established Method for a New Purpose "The system already exists in the film industry, it already exists in live television so this is not an untested concept, it's just a novel use and a new system," explained Madelaine. "We have validated it, we're partnering with a company that has decades of expertise 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 believed the technology would also act as a deterrent to would-be 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 service who says 'well, why did you take those images in the first place?' that self blame can really be reinforced so it's crucial that the support a victim receives is that they have not done anything wrong," she emphasized. She noted it was fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, saying: "It is vital to have this multi-layered approach towards addressing tech facilitated gender-based abuse, because a single solution is going to be able to tackle this alone, not just support services, it needs to be this integrated effort." Madelaine Thomas and TV presenter Jess Davies have been victims of experiencing their private photos distributed non-consensually. TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when photographs 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 women's rights campaigning. "It took so long, too long for someone to tell me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," recalled Jess. She too is passionate about eliminating the shame of intimate image abuse from the victims to the perpetrators. "It isn't a crime to consensually send an image to someone," said Jess. "However, it is illegal to distribute that without consent and I think that should invariably be where the responsibility is," she concluded.