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BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas embodies far from your average startup entrepreneur. After repeated occurrences of clients leaking her intimate photographs, she felt "sufficiently outraged to take action" and turned to tech solutions for answers.

"Those were striking images, I'm unapologetic of the photographs, I'm embarrassed of the manner that they were used against me by an individual who I have never met," stated Madelaine.

Just over a year since founding her company, Image Angel, which employs covert digital tracking to track abusers, has garnered significant recognition and was recommended as best practice in an government-commissioned study earlier this year.

This marks a significant shift from her background in offering BDSM services, dominating clients in the world of BDSM.

The Pervasive Problem

The non-consensual sharing of private images, often referred to as revenge porn, is a criminal offence with offenders facing up to two years in prison.

It is far from an issue exclusively faced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A study suggests that around 1.42% of the UK female population is affected by this form of abuse on an annual basis.

Madelaine, 37, explained survivors endured feelings of humiliation. "I think a lot of people will comment, 'you put a private image out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she said.

"I expect dignity, I expect respect, and I expect trust, and I don't see why those are negotiable," she added. "The fact that those images could be then shared where I live or with my loved ones and used to hurt them, that's beyond, that's not a decision I made, that's not my mistake, that's someone being an abuser."

An Unconventional Path

Madelaine has been practicing as a dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and consistently found her work liberating and satisfying. "I am as a dominant woman, a woman who is confident and powerful, giving my body as a treat to someone of my own volition," she said.

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

She welcomes being a unique figure in the world of tech. "I understand that it's bizarre, it's crazy to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a creator of a tech company, but it took someone who has experienced it firsthand to understand the flaws and the changes that needed to happen," she explained.

She insisted she was not technically inclined and was able to build her company after many late nights, investigation and "bugging people" who understand tech.

How Does the Technology Work?

Image Angel can be used by any digital service where people share images, for instance dating apps, social media and websites.

When an image is accessed by a user, it is automatically embedded with an undetectable digital marker which is specific to that viewer.

This invisible watermark is embedded into 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 circulated without your consent, as long as the platform you posted it on has the system integrated, the sharer's information will be encoded in the image and can be extracted by a forensic expert so action can be taken.

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

An Established Method for a New Purpose

"This technology is already in use in the film industry, it already exists in live television so this is not brand new technology, it's just a new application and a new system," said Madelaine.

"We have validated it, we're collaborating with a company that has 30 years experience in developing technology so we are confident that this is solid and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she continued.

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

Changing the Narrative

An expert from a leading helpline commented she had seen directly the trauma and guilt this abuse caused for victims.

"If that self-blame is compounded by a uninformed acquaintance or service who says 'what did you expect?' that self blame 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 added it was fantastic 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 a single solution is going to be able to solve this problem, not just support services, it needs to be this multi-layered response."

TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when photographs of her in her underwear were circulated within her town. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess endured in her teens and 20s that would later inform her advocacy work.

"It required years, an excessive amount of time for someone to say to me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," recalled Jess.

She too is dedicated to eliminating the shame of intimate image abuse from the victims to the offenders. "There is no offence to consensually send an image to someone," stated Jess.

"But it is a crime to circulate that without consent and I think that should invariably be where the responsibility is," she concluded.