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Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas embodies far from your typical tech founder. After repeated occurrences of individuals distributing her private explicit images, she felt "sufficiently outraged to take action" and turned to tech solutions for a solution.

"Those were striking images, I'm not ashamed of the photographs, I'm ashamed of the way that they were weaponized by someone who I have never met," explained Madelaine.

Little over a year after founding her company, Image Angel, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to track abusers, has won several awards and was cited as best practice in an government-commissioned study recently.

This marks quite a departure from her previous career in offering BDSM services, 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 offenders risking two years in prison.

It is not at all an issue uniquely experienced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A study indicates that approximately 1.42% of the UK female population is affected by this form of abuse on an annual basis.

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

"I expect dignity, I expect respect, and I expect confidence, and I don't see why those are negotiable," she added. "The reality 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 my choice, that's not an error on my part, that's an individual being an abuser."

A Unique Journey

Madelaine has been working as a professional dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and always 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 because I wish to," she described.

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

She welcomes being a unique figure in the technology sector. "I know that it's bizarre, it's remarkable 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 explained.

She maintained she was not in the least bit techy and was managed to build her company after many late nights, investigation and "bugging people" who know about tech.

Understanding the Tech Solution

Image Angel can be used by 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 invisible forensic watermark 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 photographed with a secondary device.

It ensures that if you find out your image has been shared non-consensually, providing the service you posted it on has the technology embedded, the viewer's details will be encoded in the image and can be retrieved by a forensic expert so action can be taken.

Currently, one platform has implemented her tech and she's in talks with many others.

An Established Method for a New Purpose

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

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

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

Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame

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

"When that guilt is reinforced by a uninformed acquaintance or professional who says 'well, why did you take those images in the first place?' that self blame can really be deepened so it's really important that the response somebody is provided with is that they have committed no error," she emphasized.

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 no one tool is going to be able to solve this problem, no one helpline, it needs to be this multi-layered response."

TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when images of her in her underwear were circulated within her town. It was the first of several incidents Jess experienced in her teens and 20s that would later inform her women's rights campaigning.

"It required years, too long for someone to tell me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," recalled Jess.

She too is passionate about removing the stigma of intimate image abuse from the victims to the perpetrators. "There is no offence to willingly share an image to someone," said Jess.

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