image source, Image angel
Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas is not your typical tech company founder.
After her private and explicit images were shared without her consent, Madelaine was so outraged that she took matters into her own hands and turned to technology to find a solution.
“They were beautiful photos, I’m not ashamed of them, I’m ashamed of how they were used against me by a person I don’t know,” says Madelaine.
Just over a year after the founding of Image Angel, a company that uses invisible forensic watermarking to track down perpetrators, the initiative has already won several awards and was recommended as best practice earlier this year in an official, independent review of the pornography industry by Gabrielle Louise Bertin, who sits in the House of Lords, the upper house of the British Parliament.
This success represents a radical change in the career of Madelaine, who until then had been dedicated to offering consensual sexual encounters and dominating her clients in fetish practices, bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism (BDSM).
Sharing intimate images without consent, a practice known as revenge porn, is a crime punishable by up to two years in prison in Britain.
It’s not a problem that only affects those who work in the sex industry.
According to a report by Revenge Porn Helpline, 1.42% of the female population in the UK is affected by the distribution of intimate images without consent each year.
Madelaine, who is 37 and lives in Monmouthshire, Wales, says survivors of revenge porn cases live with shame and stigma.
“A lot of people say, ‘You posted a provocative photo online, what did you expect?'” he adds.
“I expect dignity, respect and trust, and I don’t understand why these things should be negotiable.”
“The fact that these images can then circulate in the place where I live or among people I love and that they are used to cause harm goes much further. It is not my choice or my fault: it is a form of abuse.”
Madelaine has been working as a dominatrix for 10 years – mostly online – and says she has always found her work empowering and fulfilling.
“I am a dominant woman, a confident and strong woman who gives her body to someone because she wants it, because she wants it, because it is her body and she can do whatever she wants with it,” she explains.
“Some people think it’s strange, but for me it’s no different than the work of a nutritionist or an accountant.”
Madelaine assumes that she is in some way an anomaly in the world of technology.
“I know it sounds strange, it’s almost absurd to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now the founder of a tech company, but it took someone who had been through it to see the gaps and the changes that were needed,” she says.
She insists that she doesn’t consider herself a technology expert at all and that she managed to build her company after many sleepless nights, research and “harassing people” who knew the subject.
“I have never felt judged for having been a dominatrix. On the contrary, it gives me strength because I can bring a level of experience and knowledge about this world that they would never have,” she concludes.
How does it work?
Image Angel can be used on any online platform that shares images, such as: B. Dating apps, social networks and websites.
When a user views an image, an invisible forensic watermark is automatically embedded that applies only to that person.
This invisible watermark is embedded in the image copy itself and survives screenshots, edits and photos taken on a second device.
This means that if you find that your image has been shared without your consent, the sharer’s information will be hidden in the image and can be recovered by a data recovery specialist, provided the platform you posted it on has integrated this technology.
So far, one platform has adopted this technology and Madelaine is in discussions with many others.
But how do we know the technology is effective?
“This technology already exists in Hollywood and sports broadcasting, so it’s not entirely new; what’s changing is the application and the system,” explains Madelaine.
“In addition, we have tested it and are working with a company that has 30 years of experience in technology development, so we know it is solid. Now we need to test it at scale.”
He also expressed hope that the technology would serve to deter potential perpetrators from distributing intimate images without consent.
distress
Kate Worthington of revenge porn hotline Southwest Grid for Learning (SWGFL) says she has seen firsthand the panic, fear and guilt experienced by victims of intimate image abuse.
“If that feeling of guilt is reinforced by a misinformed friend or service member saying, ‘Why did you take those pictures in the first place?’, that feeling can be greatly increased. That’s why it’s important that the person receives a response that they did nothing wrong,” he explains.
She added that she thought it was great that Madelaine was using her experience to drive change, saying: “It’s so important to take a multi-pronged approach to combating technology-enabled gender abuse because no single tool can solve this problem, no single hotline. A multi-pronged response is needed.”
SWGFL has a global tool called StopNCII.org that creates a “fingerprint” of a person’s intimate images and videos and shares it with participating companies to help identify and remove this content as it spreads across the Internet.
British television presenter Jess Davies was just 15 years old when pictures of her in her underwear began circulating in her city.
It was the first of several incidents Jess experienced throughout her youth, experiences that later influenced her advocacy for women’s rights.
“It took too long for someone to tell me, ‘It wasn’t your fault’ and ‘That shouldn’t have happened,'” says Jess, who also lives in Wales, UK.
She also works to eliminate the stigmatization of victims of intimate image abuse and makes it clear that the blame lies with the perpetrators.
“It’s not a crime to consensually send someone a picture,” explains Jess, 32.
“But distribution without consent is one thing, and I think that should always be the blame.”
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