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BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas represents not at all your standard tech founder. Following repeated instances of clients distributing her intimate photographs, she was "angry enough to take action" and turned to tech solutions for answers.

"Those were striking images, I'm unapologetic of the pictures, I'm ashamed of the way that they were weaponized by someone who I have never met," explained Madelaine.

Little over a year since launching her venture, Image Angel, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to track abusers, has won several awards and was recommended as best practice in an government-commissioned study earlier this year.

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

The Pervasive Problem

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

It is far from an issue exclusively faced by those in the sex industry. A report indicates that approximately 1.42% of the women in the UK is impacted by intimate image abuse on an annual basis.

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

"I expect dignity, I expect respect, and I expect confidence, and I don't see why those are negotiable," she added. "The fact that those images could be then shared in my community or with my loved ones and employed to cause them pain, that's unacceptable, that's not a decision I made, that's not an error on my part, that's someone being an abuser."

An Unconventional Path

Madelaine has been practicing as a dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and always found her work liberating and satisfying. "I am as a dominant woman, a woman who is empowered and strong, offering my body as a treat to someone of my own volition," she described.

"People think it's strange but I view it similarly to a personal trainer or an financial advisor giving advice," she remarked.

She embraces being a unique figure in the technology sector. "I understand that it's unconventional, it's remarkable to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a tech company, but it required someone who has been through it to understand the loopholes and the changes that were necessary," she explained.

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

How Does the Technology Work?

Image Angel can be implemented on any digital service where people exchange photos, 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 specific to that viewer.

This covert marker is encoded within the digital file of the image itself and can withstand screenshots, being edited and being photographed with a secondary device.

It ensures that if you discover your image has been shared non-consensually, providing the platform you used has the technology embedded, the sharer's information will be hidden within the image and can be extracted by a data recovery specialist so legal steps can follow.

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

An Established Method for a New Purpose

"This technology already exists in Hollywood, it is employed in sports broadcasting so this is not brand new technology, it's just a new application and a different framework," said Madelaine.

"And we've tested it, we're collaborating with a firm 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 continued.

She said she hoped the technology would also act as a preventive measure to would-be perpetrators.

Changing the Narrative

An expert from a support service said she had seen directly the panic, distress and self-blame this abuse caused for victims.

"When that guilt is compounded by a uninformed acquaintance or professional who says 'well, why did you take those images in the first place?' that guilt can really be reinforced so it's crucial that the response a victim receives is that they have not done anything wrong," she stated.

She noted it was inspiring that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to bring about change, saying: "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, no one helpline, it needs to be this multi-layered response."

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

"It required years, too long for someone to tell me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that was wrong'," recalled Jess.

She too is passionate about removing the stigma of intimate image abuse from the victims to the perpetrators. "It isn't a crime to willingly share an photo to someone," said Jess.

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