BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas embodies not at all your standard tech founder. After multiple occurrences of clients distributing her intimate photographs, she was "angry enough to take action" and turned to tech solutions for answers.
"Those were beautiful pictures, I'm unapologetic of the pictures, I'm ashamed of the manner that they were weaponized by someone who I don't know," explained Madelaine.
Little over a year after launching her venture, Image Angel, which employs invisible forensic watermarking to identify abusers, has won several awards and was cited as exemplary procedure in an independent pornography review earlier this year.
This marks quite a departure from her previous career in providing BDSM services, working with clients in the realms of BDSM.
Intimate image abuse, commonly known as revenge porn, is a criminal offence with offenders facing up to two years in prison.
It is far from an issue uniquely experienced by those in the sex industry. A report suggests that approximately 1.42% of the UK female population is affected by this form of abuse each year.
Madelaine, thirty-seven, said survivors lived with feelings of humiliation. "I think a lot of people will say, 'you put 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 don't see why those are negotiable," she added. "The reality that those images could be then shared where I live or with my loved ones and employed to cause them pain, that's beyond, that's not a decision I made, that's not an error on my part, that's someone committing abuse."
Madelaine has been working as a dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and consistently found her work liberating and satisfying. "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 unusual but I don't see it any differently to a nutritionist or an accountant giving advice," she remarked.
She welcomes being something of an anomaly in the technology sector. "I understand that it's bizarre, it's crazy to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a technology firm, but it required someone who has experienced it firsthand to understand the loopholes and the changes that needed to happen," she explained.
She maintained she was not in the least bit techy and was able to build her company after many late nights, research and "bugging people" who understand tech.
Image Angel can be implemented on any online platform where people share images, for instance dating apps, social networks and websites.
When an image is viewed by a user, 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 survive screen shots, being edited and being photographed with a different camera.
It ensures that if you find out your image has been circulated non-consensually, as long as the service you posted it on has the system integrated, the sharer's information will be encoded in the image and can be extracted by a data recovery specialist so legal steps can follow.
Currently, one platform has implemented her tech and she's in talks with many others.
"This technology already exists in the film industry, it already exists in sports broadcasting so this is not brand new technology, it's just a novel use and a new system," said Madelaine.
"We have validated it, we're collaborating with a company that has decades of expertise in tech development so we know that this is reliable and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she continued.
She expressed hope she believed the technology would also act as a preventive measure to would-be intimate image abusers.
An advocate from a support service said she had seen first-hand the trauma and guilt intimate image abuse inflicted on victims.
"If that self-blame is compounded by a uninformed acquaintance or professional who says 'what did you expect?' that self blame can really be deepened so it's crucial that the support a victim receives is that they have committed no error," she emphasized.
She noted it was inspiring that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to bring about change, saying: "It is really important to have this comprehensive strategy towards addressing tech facilitated gender-based abuse, because a single solution is going to be able to tackle this alone, no one helpline, it needs to be this integrated effort."
TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when images of her in her underwear were shared around her local community. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess endured in her teens and 20s that would later shape 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'," said Jess.
She too is dedicated to eliminating the shame of intimate image abuse from the victims to the perpetrators. "There is no offence to willingly share an photo to someone," stated Jess.
"However, it is illegal to distribute that without consent and I think that should invariably be where the blame is," she concluded.
Elara Vance is a dedicated MapleStory enthusiast and gaming writer, known for creating in-depth guides and staying updated on game mechanics.
