Transitioning from Professional Dominatrix to Technology Entrepreneur: A Unique Fight To Combat Intimate Image Abuse

Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas embodies far from your typical startup entrepreneur. After repeated instances of clients distributing her private explicit images, she felt "sufficiently outraged to do something about it" and turned to technology for answers.

"Those were striking images, I'm not ashamed of the pictures, I'm embarrassed of the manner that they were weaponized by an individual who I have never met," said Madelaine.

Little over a year since founding her company, Image Angel, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to track abusers, has garnered significant recognition and was cited as best practice in an government-commissioned study recently.

This represents a significant shift from her previous career in providing consensual sexual encounters, dominating clients in the realms of BDSM.

The Pervasive Problem

Intimate image abuse, commonly known as revenge porn, is a criminal offence with perpetrators risking 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 women in the UK is affected by intimate image abuse on an annual basis.

Madelaine, thirty-seven, said victims lived with shame and stigma. "In my view a lot of people will say, 'you shared a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she said.

"I expect 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 subsequently distributed where I live or with my loved ones and used to hurt them, that's unacceptable, that's not a decision I made, that's not my mistake, that's an individual being an abuser."

A Unique Journey

Madelaine has been practicing as a dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and always found her work empowering and fulfilling. "It's me as a dominant woman, a woman who is empowered and strong, giving my body as a treat to someone because I wish to," she said.

"People think it's strange but I don't see it any differently to a nutritionist or an financial advisor giving advice," she added.

She welcomes being a unique figure in the world of tech. "I understand that it's unconventional, it's crazy to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now a creator of a technology firm, but it took someone who has experienced it firsthand to understand the loopholes and the modifications that needed to happen," she explained.

She maintained she was not in the least bit techy and was managed to build her company after many late nights, research and "bugging people" who understand tech.

How Does the Technology Work?

Image Angel can be implemented on any digital service where people share images, for instance dating apps, social networks and online sites.

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 copy of the image itself and can withstand screenshots, being altered and being photographed with a secondary device.

It means that if you find out your image has been circulated without your consent, as long as the service you used has the technology embedded, the sharer's information will be encoded in the image and can be retrieved by a data recovery specialist so action can be taken.

To date, one platform has adopted her tech and she's in talks with several more.

An Established Method for a New Purpose

"The system already exists in the film industry, it is employed in live television so this is not brand new technology, it's just a new application and a different framework," said Madelaine.

"And we've tested it, we're partnering with a firm that has 30 years experience in developing technology so we know that this is solid and what we now need to do is test it at scale," she added.

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

Changing the Narrative

An advocate from a leading helpline commented she had seen directly the trauma and guilt this abuse inflicted on victims.

"When that guilt is reinforced by a uninformed acquaintance or professional who says 'well, why did you take those images in the first place?' that guilt can really be reinforced so it's really important that the response a victim receives is that they have committed no error," she stated.

She added it was fantastic that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to create solutions, adding: "It is vital to have this comprehensive strategy towards tackling technology-enabled 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."

TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when photographs of her in her underwear were shared around her local community. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess experienced in her youth that would later inform her advocacy work.

"It required years, an excessive amount of time for someone to say to me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that was wrong'," recalled Jess.

She too is dedicated to removing the stigma of intimate image abuse from the survivors to the perpetrators. "There is no offence to willingly share an photo to someone," said Jess.

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