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BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas embodies far from your average tech founder. After multiple instances of clients leaking her private explicit images, she felt "angry enough to take action" and looked to tech solutions for answers.

"These were striking images, I'm unapologetic of the pictures, I'm embarrassed of the manner that they were used against me by an individual who I don't know," explained Madelaine.

Little over a year since founding her venture, Image Angel, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to track perpetrators, has garnered significant recognition and was recommended as best practice in an government-commissioned study recently.

This marks quite a departure from her previous career in offering consensual sexual encounters, working with clients in the world of BDSM.

A Widespread Issue

Intimate image abuse, often referred to as revenge porn, is a punishable crime with perpetrators risking two years in prison.

It is far from an issue uniquely experienced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A study indicates that around 1.42% of the women in the UK is affected by intimate image abuse each year.

Madelaine, 37, explained survivors lived with shame and stigma. "I think a lot of people will say, 'you shared a private image out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she noted.

"I demand respect, I expect respect, and I expect confidence, and I don't see why those are up for debate," she added. "The reality that those images could be subsequently distributed in my community or with people I love and employed to cause them pain, that's beyond, that's not a decision I made, that's not my mistake, that's an individual committing abuse."

An Unconventional Path

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," she said.

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

She embraces being something of an anomaly in the world of tech. "I understand that it's unconventional, it's crazy to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now a creator of a tech company, but it required someone who has experienced it firsthand to know the loopholes and the changes that were necessary," she stated.

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

Understanding the Tech Solution

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

When an image is viewed by a user, it is automatically embedded with an undetectable digital marker which is unique to them.

This covert marker is embedded into the copy of the image itself and can survive screen shots, being altered and being re-captured with a different camera.

It ensures that if you discover your image has been circulated without your consent, providing the service you used has the system integrated, the sharer's information will be encoded in the image and can be retrieved by a data recovery specialist so action can be taken.

To date, one platform has implemented her tech and she's in talks with several more.

An Established Method for a New Purpose

"This technology already exists in the film industry, it already exists in sports broadcasting so this is not brand new technology, it's just a novel use and a different framework," explained Madelaine.

"We have validated it, we're partnering with a firm that has decades of expertise in tech development so we are confident that this is reliable and what we now need to do is test it at scale," she continued.

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

Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame

An advocate from a support service commented she had seen directly the panic, distress and self-blame this abuse inflicted on victims.

"If that self-blame is reinforced by a uninformed acquaintance or professional who says 'what did you expect?' that guilt can really be reinforced so it's really important that the support somebody is provided with is that they have committed no error," she emphasized.

She noted it was inspiring that Madelaine was using her experience to bring about change, adding: "It is vital to have this multi-layered approach towards tackling tech facilitated gender-based abuse, because a single solution is going to be able to tackle this alone, not just support services, it needs to be this multi-layered response."

TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when photographs of her in her underwear were shared around her local community. It was the first of several incidents Jess experienced in her teens and 20s that would later inform her advocacy work.

"It required years, an excessive amount of time for someone to tell me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that was wrong'," recalled Jess.

She too is passionate about eliminating the shame of this crime from the survivors to the offenders. "There is no offence to willingly share an photo to someone," said Jess.

"However, it is illegal to distribute that non-consensually and I think that should always be where the blame is," she affirmed.