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BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas represents not at all your typical startup entrepreneur. After repeated occurrences of clients leaking her intimate photographs, she felt "sufficiently outraged to do something about it" and looked to technology for a solution.

"Those were beautiful pictures, I'm not ashamed of the photographs, I'm embarrassed of the manner that they were weaponized by an individual who I have never met," said Madelaine.

Just over a year since founding her company, Image Angel, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to identify perpetrators, has won several awards and was cited as best practice in an government-commissioned study earlier this year.

This represents quite a departure from her background in offering BDSM services, dominating clients in the realms of kink and bondage.

The Pervasive Problem

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

It is not at all 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 this form of abuse each year.

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

"I expect dignity, I expect respect, and I expect trust, and I don't see why those are negotiable," she continued. "The reality that those images could be then shared where I live or with my loved ones 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 being an abuser."

An Unconventional Path

Madelaine has been working as a dominatrix, mainly online, for a decade and consistently found her work empowering and fulfilling. "It's me as a woman in control, a woman who is confident and powerful, giving my body as a treat to someone of my own volition," she described.

"Some believe it's strange but I view it similarly to a nutritionist or an accountant giving advice," she remarked.

She embraces being something of an anomaly in the world of tech. "I know that it's unconventional, it's remarkable to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a technology firm, but it took someone who has been through it to understand the loopholes and the modifications that needed to happen," she stated.

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

Understanding the Tech Solution

Image Angel can be implemented on any digital service where people share images, for instance social connection apps, social media and websites.

When an image is viewed by a user, it is seamlessly tagged with an invisible forensic watermark which is specific to that viewer.

This covert marker is embedded into the digital file of the image itself and can survive screenshots, being edited and being photographed with a secondary device.

It ensures that if you find out your image has been shared without your consent, providing the platform you used has the system integrated, the viewer's details will be hidden within the image and can be retrieved by a data recovery specialist so action can be taken.

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

Proven Technology, New Application

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

"We have validated it, we're partnering with a company 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 added.

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

Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame

An expert from a leading helpline commented she had seen directly the panic, distress and self-blame intimate image abuse caused for victims.

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

She noted it was fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to bring about change, adding: "It is vital to have this comprehensive strategy towards addressing tech facilitated gender-based abuse, because no one tool 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 only fifteen when images 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 took so long, too long for someone to tell me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that was wrong'," said Jess.

She too is dedicated to removing the stigma of this crime from the victims to the offenders. "There is no offence to willingly share an photo to someone," said Jess.

"But it is a crime to distribute that without consent and I think that should always be where the blame is," she concluded.