Dominatrix turns tech founder to combat revenge porn

Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas isn't your average tech founder.

After the repeated humiliation of clients leaking her private explicit images, she felt "angry enough to do something about it" and turned to technology for answers.

"These were beautiful pictures, I'm not ashamed of the pictures, I'm ashamed of the way that they were used against me by someone who I don't know," said Madelaine.

Little over a year after launching her company, Image Angel, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to track abusers, has won several awards and was recommended as best practice in Baroness Bertin's independent pornography review earlier this year.

It is quite a departure from her background providing consensual sexual encounters dominating clients in kink and bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism (BDSM).

Intimate image abuse, often referred to as revenge porn, is a criminal offence with perpetrators facing up to two years in prison.

It is far from something uniquely experienced by those who work in the sex industry.

A report by the Revenge Porn Helpline suggests 1.42% of the UK female population is affected by intimate image abuse on an annual basis.

Madelaine, 37, from Monmouthshire, said survivors lived with shame and stigma.

"I think a lot of people will say, 'you put a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she said.

"I expect dignity, I expect respect, and I expect trust, and I don't see why those are negotiable.

"The fact that those images could be then shared around where I live or with people I love and used to hurt them, that's beyond, that's not my choice, that's not my mistake, that's someone being an abuser."

Madelaine has been working 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, because I want to, because it's my body and I can do what I want with it," she said.

"People think it's strange but I don't see it any differently to a nutritionist or an accountant giving advice."

She embraces being something of an anomaly in the world of tech.

"I know that it's bizarre, it's crazy to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a tech company, but it took someone who has been through it to know the loopholes and the changes that needed to happen."

She insisted she was not in the least bit techy and was able to build her company after a lot of sleepless nights, research and "bugging people" who know about tech.

"I don't ever feel judged for the position I had as a dominatrix, I feel empowered by that because I can give a level of experience and knowledge of this kind of world that they would never have," she said.

How does the technology work?

Image Angel can be used by any online platform where people share images, for instance dating apps, social media and websites.

When an image is accessed by a viewer, it is automatically embedded with an invisible forensic watermark which is unique to them.

The invisible watermark is embedded into the copy of the image itself and can survive screen shots, being edited and being photographed with a secondary device.

It means if you discover your image has been shared without your consent, providing the platform you posted it on has the technology embedded, 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 platform has adopted her tech and she's in talks with many others.

So how do we know the tech is effective?

"This technology already exists in Hollywood, it already exists in sports broadcasting so this is not brand new technology, it's just a new application and a new system," said Madelaine.

"And we've tested it, we're partnering with a company 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 said she hoped the technology would also act as deterrent to would-be intimate image abusers.

Kate Worthington from Southwest Grid for Learning's (SWGFL) Revenge Porn Helpline said she had seen first-hand the panic, distress and self-blame intimate image abused had caused for victims.

"If that self-blame is reinforced 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 reinforced so it's really important that the response that somebody is provided with is that they have not done anything wrong," she said.

She added it was fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to bring about change, saying: "It is really important to have this multi-layered approach towards tackling tech facilitated gender-based abuse, because no one tool is going to be able to tackle this alone, no one helpline, it needs to be this multi-layered response."

SWGFL has a global tool called StopNCII.org, which works by generating a hash from a person's intimate images and videos which it shares with participating companies so they can help detect and remove the images from being shared online.

TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when images of her in her underwear were shared around her town.

It was the first of several incidents Jess experienced in her teens and 20s that would later inform her women's rights campaigning.

"It took so long, too long for someone to say to me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," said Jess, who lives in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan.

She too is passionate about removing the stigma of intimate image abuse from the victims to the perpetrators.

"It isn't a crime to consensually send an image to someone," said Jess, 32.

"But it is a crime to distribute that without consent and I think that should always be where the blame is."

If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this story, support and advice is available via the BBC Action Line.