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BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas is far from your standard startup entrepreneur. Following multiple occurrences of individuals leaking her private explicit images, she felt "sufficiently outraged to do something about it" and looked to tech solutions for answers.

"Those were beautiful pictures, I'm unapologetic of the photographs, I'm embarrassed of the manner that they were weaponized by someone who I don't know," stated 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 cited as best practice in an independent pornography review earlier this year.

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

The Pervasive Problem

The non-consensual sharing of private images, 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 sex industry. A report indicates that around 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by intimate image abuse each year.

Madelaine, 37, explained victims endured shame and stigma. "I think a lot of people will comment, 'you put a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she noted.

"I expect dignity, I expect consideration, and I expect trust, and I fail to understand why those are up for debate," she added. "The reality that those images could be subsequently distributed in my community or with my loved ones and used to hurt them, that's unacceptable, that's not my choice, that's not my mistake, that's an individual being an abuser."

An Unconventional Path

Madelaine has been practicing as a professional dominatrix, mainly online, for a decade and consistently found her work empowering and fulfilling. "I am as a dominant woman, a woman who is confident and powerful, giving my body as a gift to someone of my own volition," she said.

"People think it's unusual but I view it similarly to a nutritionist or an financial advisor providing a service," she remarked.

She embraces being a unique figure in the world of tech. "I understand that it's bizarre, it's remarkable to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a tech company, but it took someone who has been through it to know the flaws and the changes that needed to happen," she stated.

She insisted she was not in the least bit techy and was managed to build her company after a lot of sleepless nights, investigation and "consulting experts" 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 networks and websites.

When an image is viewed by a user, it is seamlessly tagged with an invisible forensic watermark which is unique to them.

This covert marker is embedded into the copy of the image itself and can survive screenshots, being edited and being photographed with a different camera.

It means that if you find out your image has been circulated non-consensually, providing the platform you used has the technology embedded, the viewer's details will be hidden within the image and can be retrieved by a forensic expert so action can be taken.

Currently, one service has adopted her tech and she's in discussions with many others.

Proven Technology, New Application

"This technology is already in use in Hollywood, it already exists in live television so this is not an untested concept, it's just a new application and a new system," said Madelaine.

"We have validated it, we're collaborating with a firm that has decades of expertise in tech development so we are confident that this is solid and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she added.

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

Changing the Narrative

An advocate from a support service commented she had seen first-hand the trauma and guilt this abuse inflicted on victims.

"When that guilt 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 a victim receives is that they have not done anything wrong," she emphasized.

She noted it was inspiring that Madelaine was using her experience to bring about change, adding: "It is really important to have this comprehensive strategy towards addressing tech facilitated 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 a state of undress were circulated within her local community. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess experienced in her youth that would later shape her advocacy work.

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

She too is dedicated to 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 always be where the responsibility is," she concluded.