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BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas embodies far from your typical tech founder. Following repeated occurrences of individuals distributing her private explicit images, she felt "angry enough to take action" and looked to tech solutions for a solution.

"Those were striking images, I'm not ashamed of the pictures, I'm ashamed of the manner that they were weaponized by an individual who I have never met," said Madelaine.

Little over a year after launching her company, Image Angel, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to track perpetrators, has won several awards and was recommended as exemplary procedure in an government-commissioned study recently.

This represents quite a departure from her background in offering BDSM services, dominating clients in the realms of BDSM.

A Widespread Issue

Intimate image abuse, commonly known as revenge porn, is a criminal offence with offenders risking two years in prison.

It is not at all an issue uniquely experienced by those in the sex industry. A study suggests that approximately 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by this form of abuse on an annual basis.

Madelaine, thirty-seven, said survivors lived with shame and stigma. "I think a lot of people will comment, 'you put a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she noted.

"I demand respect, I expect respect, and I expect trust, and I fail to understand why those are negotiable," she added. "The fact that those images could be subsequently distributed in my community 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 an individual committing abuse."

An Unconventional Path

Madelaine has been working as a dominatrix, primarily online, for a decade and consistently found her work empowering and fulfilling. "I am as a dominant woman, a woman who is empowered and strong, offering my body as a treat to someone because I wish to," she said.

"Some believe it's strange but I don't see it any differently to a personal trainer or an accountant providing a service," she remarked.

She embraces being a unique figure in the technology sector. "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 explained.

She maintained she was not technically inclined and was managed to build her company after a lot of late nights, research and "consulting experts" who know about tech.

How Does the Technology Work?

Image Angel can be used by any online platform where people exchange photos, for instance dating apps, social media 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 withstand screenshots, being edited and being photographed with a different camera.

It ensures that if you discover your image has been shared without your consent, as long as the service you posted it on has the system integrated, the viewer's details will be encoded in the image and can be retrieved by a forensic expert so legal steps can follow.

Currently, one service has implemented her tech and she's in discussions with several more.

Proven Technology, New Application

"This technology is already in use in the film industry, it is employed in sports broadcasting so this is not brand new technology, it's just a novel use and a new system," said Madelaine.

"And we've tested it, we're partnering with a company that has decades of expertise in developing technology so we know that this is reliable and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she added.

She said she hoped the technology would also act as a deterrent to potential intimate image abusers.

Changing the Narrative

An advocate from a leading helpline said she had seen directly the trauma and guilt this abuse inflicted on victims.

"When that guilt is compounded by a misinformed friend or service who says 'what did you expect?' that self blame can really be deepened so it's really important that the support somebody is provided with is that they have not done anything wrong," she emphasized.

She added it was inspiring that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, adding: "It is vital to have this multi-layered approach towards tackling technology-enabled gender-based abuse, because no one tool is going to be able to tackle this alone, not just support services, 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 town. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess experienced in her youth that would later inform her women's rights campaigning.

"It took so long, an excessive amount of time for someone to say to me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that was wrong'," said Jess.

She too is passionate about eliminating the shame of intimate image abuse from the victims to the offenders. "It isn't a crime to consensually send an image to someone," said Jess.

"However, it is illegal to circulate that without consent and I think that should invariably be where the blame is," she concluded.