Transitioning from Dominatrix to Technology Entrepreneur: An Unconventional Campaign To Combat Revenge Porn

BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas is not at all your typical startup entrepreneur. Following repeated instances of clients distributing her private explicit images, she was "sufficiently outraged to do something about it" and turned to tech solutions for a solution.

"These were beautiful pictures, I'm not ashamed of the photographs, I'm embarrassed of the way that they were used against me by an individual who I don't know," explained Madelaine.

Little over a year after founding her venture, Image Angel, which employs invisible forensic watermarking to identify perpetrators, has won several awards and was recommended as best practice in an government-commissioned study earlier this year.

This represents quite a departure from her previous career in offering consensual sexual encounters, working with clients in the realms of kink and bondage.

A Widespread Issue

Intimate image abuse, 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 adult entertainment sector. A study indicates that approximately 1.42% of the women in the UK is impacted by intimate image abuse on an annual basis.

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

"I demand respect, I expect respect, and I expect trust, 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 my loved ones and used to hurt them, that's unacceptable, that's not my choice, that's not my mistake, that's an individual being an abuser."

An Unconventional Path

Madelaine has been practicing as a dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and always found her work empowering and fulfilling. "I am as a woman in control, a woman who is confident and powerful, 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 accountant giving advice," she remarked.

She embraces 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 modifications that were necessary," she explained.

She insisted she was not in the least bit techy and was able to build her company after many sleepless nights, investigation 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 dating apps, social media and online sites.

When an image is accessed by a user, it is seamlessly tagged with an invisible forensic watermark which is specific to that viewer.

This invisible watermark is encoded within the copy of the image itself and can survive screenshots, being altered and being re-captured with a different camera.

It ensures that if you discover your image has been circulated without your consent, providing the platform you posted it on has the system integrated, the sharer's information will be hidden within the image and can be retrieved by a data recovery specialist so action can be taken.

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

Proven Technology, New Application

"The system already exists in Hollywood, it is employed in live television so this is not brand new technology, it's just a novel use and a new system," explained Madelaine.

"We have validated it, we're partnering with a firm that has decades of expertise in developing technology so we know 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 potential intimate image abusers.

Changing the Narrative

An expert from a support service commented she had seen first-hand the trauma and guilt intimate image abuse caused for victims.

"If that self-blame is compounded by a misinformed friend or professional who says 'what did you expect?' that guilt can really be deepened so it's really important that the support somebody is provided with is that they have not done anything wrong," she stated.

She noted it was fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, adding: "It is really important to have this comprehensive strategy towards addressing tech facilitated abuse, because a single solution is going to be able to solve this problem, no one helpline, it needs to be this integrated effort."

TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when images of her in her underwear were shared around her town. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess experienced in her teens and 20s that would later inform her advocacy work.

"It took so long, an excessive amount of time for someone to tell me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," recalled Jess.

She too is dedicated to eliminating the shame 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 circulate that without consent and I think that should invariably be where the responsibility is," she concluded.