Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas is not your typical tech founder. After experiencing the repeated humiliation of clients leaking her private explicit images, she channeled her anger into action, turning to technology for a solution.
“These were beautiful pictures,” Madelaine said. “I’m not ashamed of the pictures. I’m ashamed of the way that they were used against me by someone I don’t know.”
Just over a year after launching her company, Image Angel, her work has already gained significant recognition.
The service, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to trace abusers, has won several awards and was recommended as a best practice in Baroness Bertin’s independent pornography review earlier this year.
This professional pivot marks a notable departure from her background in providing consensual BDSM encounters. Yet, the issue she confronts—intimate image abuse, often called “revenge porn”—is a criminal offense affecting people far beyond the sex industry.
According to the Revenge Porn Helpline, approximately 1.42% of the UK’s female population faces such abuse annually.
Madelaine, 37, from Monmouthshire, emphasizes that survivors often live 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 noted.
“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 shared where I live or with people I love, and used to hurt them—that’s not my choice, that’s not my mistake. That’s someone being an abuser.”
By James Kisoo
