The Angel in the Algorithm - Madelaine Thomas on protecting your intimate images

Summary

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The Good Sex Project – “The Angel in the Algorithm: Madelaine Thomas on Protecting Your Intimate Images”

Episode Date: July 2, 2026
Host: Melody Thomas
Guest: Madelaine Thomas, dominatrix & founder/CEO of Image Angel
Podcast Produced by: Popsock Media

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the urgent, complex issues surrounding image-based abuse, deepfake pornography, sextortion, and consent in the digital age. Host Melody Thomas sits down with Madelaine Thomas, who, after her own non-consensual image leak, developed Image Angel—a watermarking technology designed to protect individuals’ intimate images. Their vulnerable, outspoken conversation spans the evolving nature of digital consent, the internalized shame victims confront, sextortion (including among teens), and what platforms and governments should be doing to address these harms.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Origin Story and Motivation for Image Angel

• Madelaine Thomas’ personal experience of image-based abuse was the catalyst for inventing Image Angel.
  • She was unable to trace the perpetrator after her commercial, consensual images were leaked.
  • The lack of existing tech solutions, and platforms’ indifference, motivated her to act.
• Quote:
  • “If I could have, I would have loved to have been able to look into those images and go, who did this? Where is my justice? ... I had to do something because one day my kids are going to grow up ... and at least they could say, yeah, and look what she built.” (Madelaine Thomas, 01:46)

2. What Image Angel Is and How It Works

• Image Angel uses a sophisticated form of digital watermarking, embedding identifying data at the pixel level.
• The aim is not just to find perpetrators but to shift responsibility from individuals to digital platforms.
• It’s designed for system-level integration—users don’t need to upload or tag their images manually.
• Technological Insight:
  • “Every part of that media is embedded with your, as the viewer, your data. So that should that go walkabouts, we know who to contact ... or take them to court ... or the judicial criminal system.” (Madelaine Thomas, 02:47)

3. Platforms, Policy, and Pushing for Change

• Madelaine is approaching major platforms, advocating that they integrate Image Angel at a system level—so individuals aren’t burdened, and platforms are held accountable.
• There is momentum, aided by increased governmental concern about digital gender-based violence.
• On government action:
  • “The appetite for better protections against violence against women and girls on digital platforms...is definitely there.” (Madelaine Thomas, 08:47)

4. Deepfakes and Real-World Harms

• Madelaine relays a shocking recent experience involving deepfakes at a conference:
  • A client created a deepfake of his wife and shared it with her.
  • The incident illuminated the blurry, complex ethical lines and the prevalence of abuse.
• Quote:
  • “I am experiencing the very thing that I am working to criminalize, I'm working to stop. How do I react now?” (Madelaine Thomas, 06:12)

5. The Experience and Emotional Toll of Image-Based Abuse

• Victims feel profound shame—even those like Madelaine who consensually create sexual imagery.
• The sense of violation is real and lasting, even if outsiders minimize the harm (“it’s not like it’s your body”).
• There’s an extra layer of stigma for sex workers, deepening the shame.
• Quote:
  • “I'm still dealing with the internal shame of it happening to me. … At least I consensually took it. … What did you expect, you stupid girl?...I hate it.” (Madelaine Thomas, 09:28–11:09)

6. Consent, Relationships & Digital Etiquette

• The importance of explicit communication and consent about intimate images, not just at the moment of sharing, but regarding ongoing storage and sharing with others.
• Rules of Thumb (from Madelaine, 15:06):
  • Never share an image received, ever—not even with a friend.
  • After a relationship ends, delete those images.
  • Keep images secure with hidden folders or protected storage.
• Quote:
  • “At absolutely no point ever. Not even ‘look at this.’ That’s just a no.” (Madelaine Thomas, 15:06)

7. Sextortion and Adolescent Vulnerability

• The episode highlights how teens, particularly boys, are targeted via fake cam room sextortion scams.
• Image Angel’s tracing technology could aid these cases—if platforms adopt it.
• The challenge: If abuse happens on a platform covered by Image Angel, perpetrators can be identified; enforcement across borders is the next frontier.
• Quote:
  • “We need to be able to check that image immediately. ... Time is really at the assets with those cases too.” (Madelaine Thomas, 13:31)

8. Broadening the Impact and Stigma around Sex Work

• Madelaine insists on serving the most vulnerable spaces—sex work and dating platforms—before expanding Image Angel to other sectors.
• She only partners with supporters of sex work decriminalization.
• Quote:
  • “I'm going where I know the harm is hitting the worst. I don’t care about keeping your data safe. I care about keeping these girlies and guys safe in this specific area that has been completely neglected.” (Madelaine Thomas, 11:37)

9. What Governments and Platforms Should Be Doing

• Calls for faster, more specific regulation, including criminalizing deepfake-creating apps and setting minimum safety standards for platforms.
• Education is key, especially on digital consent for adults.
• Quote:
  • “There is so much harm ... because there is no regulation within technology. ... But also, I feel like governments need to be a little bit more set in the way they ask people to add in safety tech.” (Madelaine Thomas, 16:54)

10. Reclaiming Power Through Openness

• Madelaine shares that speaking about her experiences has helped her reclaim some agency from the violation, though the journey is ongoing.
• Quote:
  • “You didn’t get one up on me. Like, I took that back. ... But I also feel like ... I just wish it didn’t have to happen. If I can educate just one person out there to not be a dick—it’s not yours, put it away ... I have equally lost and reclaimed myself.” (Madelaine Thomas, 20:06)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It’s like not wearing a seatbelt or like smoking indoors. We just don’t do that anymore because we know about the harms and the risks.”
  —Madelaine Thomas, 09:28
• “Never walk past a CCTV camera, never appear in a video, never put your face online... This is part of our life. Plus, look, we look great naked.”
  —Madelaine Thomas, 16:13
• “Let’s be in control of the images we create.”
  —Host Melody Thomas, 16:42

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:46 – Madelaine recounts the violation and her motivation to build Image Angel.
• 05:33 – Discussion of deepfakes; Madelaine’s real-time experience with image-based abuse.
• 09:28 – Emotional and psychological impact of image-based abuse, especially for sex workers.
• 13:00 – Conversation on sextortion scams among teens and where Image Angel fits in.
• 15:06 – Consent best practices for keeping, sharing, and deleting intimate images.
• 16:54 – What governments and platforms must do to effect real change.
• 20:06 – Madelaine on reclaiming agency through openness.

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Conclusion

This episode offers a raw, necessary look at the frontlines of digital abuse and consent, told via Madelaine Thomas’ lived expertise as both a victim and innovator. The urgency for systemic solutions—tech, cultural, legal—is clear, and the emotional toll for those affected is rendered with rare vulnerability. Image Angel stands out as a pioneering attempt to rebalance digital safety and dignity, but as the discussion reveals, there’s a long way to go—on platforms, in governments, and within our own attitudes about sex, shame, and autonomy.

Transcript

[Kalki Teano]

Kia Ora Koutou. This episode discusses image based abuse, deepfake pornography and sextortion. There's also one swear word. Ooh. This podcast was made with the support of New Zealand On Air.

[Melody Thomas]

Welcome back to the Good Sex Project. I'm Melody Thomas and this is a bonus episode, one that I've kept thinking about while we've been working on this season. And I think you'll understand why once you hear it. After our episode on Sex Work, I sat down with someone who I think is doing one of the most important things happening right now at the intersection of technology, consent and bodily autonomy. Her name's Madeline Thomas, no relation. And she is today a working dominatrix. She's also the founder and CEO of imageangel technology, built to protect people whose intimate images are shared without their consent. Now, Image angel didn't just start as an idea in a boardroom. It started when someone Madeline trusted leaked her intimate images. And she couldn't find a tool to help her, so she decided to build one. What she's created is watermarking technology that hides identifying data inside digital images at a pixel level. So if an image ends up somewhere it shouldn't, there's a trail. And she's bringing this directly to platforms because she doesn't think the responsibility should fall on the person who was harmed. This conversation gets into deepfakes, the shame that runs alongside image based abuse, even for the person building the solution to it, sextortion and what consent actually looks like when it comes to intimate images in relationships. Here she is.

[Madeline Thomas]

Yeah. So I was consensually commercializing my image and I was sending this to various people across various different types of platforms. So like the commercial platforms as well as one to one messaging apps and stuff like that. And I don't know which one of the people I was speaking to went on to leak the images. If I could have, I would have loved to have been able to look into those images and go, who did this? Where is my justice? How can I have these taken down? And these images still exist out there on the Internet to this day. So I just knew as part of that journey I needed to do something. I couldn't just experience it and let others go through it as well. I had to do something because one day my kids are going to grow up and they're going to listen to the people around them go, oh, your mum's on the Internet. And at least they could say, yeah, and look what she built. Like she changed the way things were back then.

[Interviewer]

And by the way that image was shared without her consent.

[Madeline Thomas]

So anyway, and that's the thing, like the difference between consensual sharing in one space versus like consensual sharing for a commercial setting. And then you only consent for it to go here but not there. And that's something that we're kind of getting to grips with. So I needed to have my images protected. I needed to make sure that there was something out there that was able to add this layer of dignity back onto sending content on like a user to user platform. And so I created this idea with my very little technical knowledge and I thought this must already exist, this must be something that someone has created. But it turns out it wasn't. And so I'm approaching these different platforms, like the big platforms that I'm saying, could I help you create this or could I be part of a team that works on content safety and image safety on your platform? And they were just like, nah, it's not an issue, it's not a problem. So I kind of did a bit more digging and I realized it was something people were experiencing at an alarming rate and like an exponentially alarming rate. Image face abuse affects one in three women in the UK. 74% of people who have experienced it don't know who the perpetrator is. And I'm like sitting at the base of this mountain thinking, well, I could make it myself I guess. And so that's where I am now. I'm kind of up the climb on the mountain. So the technology itself is watermarking and that already exists. We know what that is, we know how that works. But this particular type of watermarking uses super pixels and it hides information in digital assets. So every part of that media is embedded with your, as the viewer, your data. So that should that go walkabouts, we know who to contact and who to find out why and how and if we can get it removed or perhaps we can fine them or take them to court over copyright breach or perhaps go down the most expensive and probably the hardest, most harrowing part, the judicial criminal system.

[Interviewer]

I'm pretty sure I saw on your website that as well as this kind of watermarking tech, there was a multi layered approach, which I would assume would include some kind of education around consent when it comes to digital image. Because I, I imagine some people might not even have horrible intentions. They might receive an image and not even think about how that image was shared between these two people and shouldn't go any wider.

[Madeline Thomas]

Absolutely. And around De Sleep folks as well. This really shocking moment happened to me just the other day actually, and I haven't really come to terms with this yet, so maybe talking about it might help. But in order to fund Image Angel, I'm still very much doing work as a sex worker, particularly as a dominatrix. And the other day I was sat in Google head office in London at a conference around non consensual intermediate abuse and I was having a commercially framed conversation with someone and they sent me a deep fake of their wife.

[Interviewer]

So he had presumably created this deep fake of his wife.

[Madeline Thomas]

Yeah. And I'm like, oh my God, I am experiencing the very thing that I am working to criminalize, I'm working to stop. How do I react now? Do I take this phone to the police and say, look, this person's done a crime because someone is the victim of this and it just so happens to be their wife. But I am earning money from this person and I need to keep this relationship going to be able to pay for this tech. And it's just, it put me in such, oh my gosh, a bizarre space and the only thing I could do was educate him and he apologized and he deleted it and it was such a bizarre little moment for me.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, the deep fake space is so alarming that my brain just wants to turn off and look away. Which obviously is the last thing we, we can do.

[Madeline Thomas]

But yeah, like, what's the answer?

[Interviewer]

Never put a photo of yourself online.

[Madeline Thomas]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Fully clothed. Because now the Internet can take your clothes off and will do so without prompting, apparently on. Yeah, Elon Musk app. So previously to this, was there no way to tell who had leaked an image?

[Madeline Thomas]

I think onlyfans have a system where you can have a watermark at the bottom that says the user's ID number. So if they leak like a video, it could be traced back to them, but that's not really containing real world information. Plus you can crop it off or blur it.

[Interviewer]

So as an individual user, could you sign up for Image angel to protect your content or is this all the platform that has to do it?

[Madeline Thomas]

Yeah, so we wanted it to be as accessible as possible, but that also means we don't want anyone to be bogged down in becoming a user or adding a type of system onto their phone. So we meet people where they're at, they shouldn't have to do any uploading, downloading, adding information or paying for this. So we're getting in touch with the social media platforms and the adult companies and we're saying this harm is happening on your site, let's do something to stop it. And we, we go in at a system level because that way it's then automatically on everyone's device, but also not putting that onus onto the individual that may either commit this crime or be a victim of this crime. We are putting the onus on the platforms because that's where the harm is happening. They're facilitating this conversation. They should at least facilitate it in a safer way.

[Interviewer]

So how are you going currently with negotiations with platforms?

[Madeline Thomas]

We're negotiating, we're talking money, we're talking safety. Hopefully by the end of the year we're going to be embedded in quite a few.

[Interviewer]

Feels to me like a matter of time especially I imagine government pressure and that kind of thing would help you significantly.

[Madeline Thomas]

Yeah, like you say, the government like the appetite for better protections against violence against women and girls on, on digital platforms and spaces is definitely there. So that will certainly pile the pressure onto the platforms, certainly. So I think against all the odds, we're doing all right. We're going to get there.

[Interviewer]

People sharing with you stories of image based abuse. And can you tell me just a bit about how this makes people feel and the kind of damage that it can have on victims of this abuse? I just think that some people think, well, it's like it's the Internet, it's not like happening to you, to your body, or it's not like an assault in real life.

[Madeline Thomas]

I think that that's pretty common for an outsider, someone who has not perhaps experienced it, to think. And in fact I think that quite a lot. I also challenge myself and go, maybe it's just a big fuss over nothing. Like, what do you expect? And then this other sort of devil and angel on my shoulder, they fight. And this little angel, she goes, no, no, no, no. Of course you should expect the basic safety, basic respect. This is the bare minimum that a tech or user to use a platform should do. You should be able to trade or talk or play in safety. It's like not wearing a seatbelt or like smoking indoors. We just don't do that anymore because we know about the harms and the risks. And yeah, you're right. A lot of people do talk to me about what they've been through and it's quite difficult. A lot of people talk to me about the harm. I'm still dealing with the internal shame of it happening to me. I feel like the worst thing is when someone who is not a sex worker, who has not shared nudes consensually, but someone who's just put their picture on Instagram and then someone who's taken that and made it nude and made it into something. Because at least myself still dealing with this shame. At least I consensually took it.

[Interviewer]

That's true. At least you were empowered enough to choreograph the image.

[Madeline Thomas]

I had something. I have some semblance of control. And I feel as a sex worker, I feel like, what did you expect, you stupid girl? I do still feel that and I'm battling against that. It's horrible. I know. I hate it.

[Interviewer]

But it runs the internalized. It does misogyny and that. It runs deep.

[Madeline Thomas]

And then also it's like just being a sex worker in general just feels shameful at points. Like the stigma, the social stigma is just.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. I was going to ask how much the fact that this would stand to benefit those in sex work especially, either helps or hinders your progress.

[Madeline Thomas]

Well, women that I speak to, generally women, people of any ethnic origin, people of any gender except for white men, say to me, God, this is so needed. This could go anywhere. Wow. But of course, you do need it in sex workspaces. Sex workspaces, dating spaces. And then generally white guys working in tech, working in finance, they say, this is. This is massive. You should have this technology protecting this and protecting that copyright, protecting this artwork. And I'm like, guys, I'm going where I know the harm is hitting the worst. I don't care about keeping your data safe. I care about keeping these girlies and guys safe in this specific area that has been completely neglected. This is where the harm is happening. I am coming to fix the problem as I see it. And then once we've made sex workspaces safe, we can look to other places. Another thing that I'm doing, whenever anyone wants to work with me, they want to put money into image. Angel, I say, what's your stance on sex work? What do you think about decriminalization? And if they don't support it? If they don't support decriminalization, I won't work with them. I am not going to work with someone if they don't seen a mission. We're working for powerful autonomy for the people.

[Interviewer]

There's been a bit of an increased conversation around sextortion here in New Zealand at the moment, and especially the way that it shows up with adolescent boys, teenage boys being going into kind of cam room situations or assuming they're going into a cam room situation and then having a screenshot of themselves taken. Use that used as bribery. And the incredible harm that happens there. Would this tech work if the cam platform is signed up? This tech could help, then Help, absolutely.

[Madeline Thomas]

The only place that the watermarking technology doesn't touch and doesn't cover is your own content. So if you are on your device or you're looking through your device or your pictures or your uploads, they're not protected. So if you lose your device, then you've got problems. So the people who are taking the screenshots, sex sorting, we can find out who they are. What we need to be able to do is to act when we find out who they are and act across borders as well. Which is why I'm trying to set up as many kind of global connections as possible. We have spiderweb connections everywhere. We need to be able to check that image immediately. Does that hold any data and get that person the help they need immediately? Time is really at the assets with those cases too.

[Interviewer]

When it happens, when you have yourself installed entirely across a platform, is there going to be a little Image angel watermark on site as well to show that? How do we know? How do we know that this is protected?

[Madeline Thomas]

We want Image angel to be the marker of a safe site, the sign of a safe site, or at least the sign of a site that takes you seriously as a worker or player on that site. I think it's important that people are scared that they don't know if our tech is in there. They should be thinking, maybe I shouldn't share this in case it has my data involved in it.

[Interviewer]

For anyone who might receive an intimate image and, I don't know, might consider showing that image to a friend or sending it on or what would you say? What are the rules of thumb, do you think?

[Madeline Thomas]

Let's think person sending an image to their partner that is an intimate image sent with the consent of this moment. But you could probably keep it so long as your relationship stays active and alive, right? And then after that, you could probably keep it for a little bit longer as a nice, beautiful memory. But at no point should you share it. At absolutely no point ever. Not even look at the, you know, look at this. That's just a no. And I would say that after that relationship is over, those images go. And also the images should be protected with a bit more securities, perhaps like a hidden folder.

[Interviewer]

I'm going to be teaching my children, if they are going to be doing this kind of thing anyway, I'm going to be teaching them how they can

[Melody Thomas]

do it more safely.

[Interviewer]

Want to definitely tell them about Hidden shoulders and maybe not having their face or a recognizable tattoo in the photo or, you know, like there's. There's steps that can be taken to help protect you.

[Madeline Thomas]

Perhaps we should stop sharing images on the Internet altogether. But that's just not possible in this day and age, is it? Never walk past a CCTV camera, never appear in a video, never put your face online, never take a picture of yourself and upload it for passport security. This is part of our life. Plus, look, we look great naked. We look great naked. Celebrate it, do it. They can just take a picture from the Internet and make it nude anyway, so what's the harm, Maxim? Have a gorgeous one of yourself.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, let's be in control of the images we create. What do you think that government could. And what should they be doing to reduce the harm of image, intimate image abuse?

[Madeline Thomas]

I think they're doing a good ish job. They could always move faster, though. I think in the UK, particularly if we look back over the last 10 years, the creation and dissemination of deepfakes is now crime. And that's brilliant. The apps that provide the solutions, like the nudification apps, are not illegal yet. How on earth that is not happening? The government that moved in, I think it was the Spanish government, they made some really quick changes around the artificial intelligence that was used in replica bots, you know, replica chatbots. And they really swiftly said, this is a problem, you need to fix this right now or you are banned in our locality. And that's what needs to happen. Needs to be much swifter action, much kind of more harsher penalties that say, if you do this, this will happen. Until you can prove it safe, you can't use it. You have to have these minimum standards. If you want to use this, you have to provide correct id instead of just going, yeah, it's free for all. Anyone can create a fake nude of their teacher or their cousin or whatever. It has to stop. It just has to stop. But also, I feel like governments need to be a little bit more set in the way they ask people to add in safety tech. The UK government, for example, they're saying sites must be able to provide a safe tech and friendly experience for the user, but don't necessarily go as far as to set out specific rules, because if you set out those rules and they fail, who's to blame? Whereas they say they put the onus on the platforms, they say, you must provide a safe and secure site. How that looks is down to your individual kind of due diligence, because then you're liable? Absolutely. There is so much harm that is happening because there is no regulation within technology. There's. There's bad actors and they're going to find a way through. They really are. One thing that I feel is so important that I am not seeing from any country or any kind of government is educating the people who are grown adults right now on how they consensually organize, discuss what is consensual in our relationship. Are you sending me this picture as my wife? Can I keep it? Can I look at it again? Can I show my mates? Absolutely. Hell no, you can't. But I think a lot of grown men perhaps don't understand the basics of consent and kind of digital literacy as well.

[Interviewer]

There's a lot of conversations we don't have within relationships because we assume that we all know the rules of relationships and we never stop to compare those rules and whether our expectations align. And I feel like this is a great conversation to have is what are our rules and our boundaries around what we're sharing digitally? Shame, obviously keeps us silent, a lot of us silent when it comes to sex, love, intimacy. What has speaking openly helped you to shift, release or reclaim for yourself? I know it's still an ongoing journey. In what ways does talking and opening up help that process?

[Madeline Thomas]

Yeah, it certainly reclaims. Yeah. I almost wish I could see the face of the guy who shared my pictures as he realizes that his bad action caused a change so monumental. But in revenge, I feel like saying, you see what you fucking did? You see that? You didn't get one up on me. Like, I took that back. I flipped between the two, you know? Yeah, I've reclaimed something. But I also feel like I'm. I'm just. I just wish it didn't have to happen. If I can educate just one person out there to not be a dick, it's not yours. Put it away. Don't share something that you don't have the content to share. It's just as simple as that. So I have equally lost and reclaimed myself.

[Melody Thomas]

Madeline, thank you so much for your time and your honesty and for all your mahi in building Image Angel. Hopefully we will see it rolled out across platforms very soon. You can find [e-mail], or via the link in our show notes. And if you work in tech policy or you run a platform where this kind of harm's happening on your watch, please get in touch with them. If you have experienced image based abuse, I want to say this really clearly. It's not your fault. It doesn't matter how the image was taken, what you are wearing or what you do for work. There are support resources in the show notes, including for netsafe and the nzpc, the New Zealand prostitutes collective. And to everyone listening, that bit that Madeline said about consent is inside relationships. Asking before you keep an image and deleting images after a relationship ends, That's a conversation worth having with whoever you're sharing yourself with. Kalki Teano. The Good Sex Project was made by PopSoc Media. It was written and developed by me, Melody Thomas. Our producer and audio editor is Kirsten Johnstone. Co producers are Kay Hecke and Elena Bates. Phil Brownlee recorded me in the studio and our sound mix is by Mark Chesterman. Paddy Fred did the music and some of the sound design. Thank you.