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BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas embodies far from your average tech founder. Following multiple instances of individuals distributing her intimate photographs, she felt "sufficiently outraged to do something about it" and turned to tech solutions for a solution.

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

Little over a year since launching her company, Image Angel, which employs covert digital tracking to identify abusers, has won several awards and was cited as best practice in an government-commissioned study recently.

This represents quite a departure from her previous career in providing consensual sexual encounters, dominating clients in the realms of BDSM.

The Pervasive Problem

Intimate image abuse, commonly known as revenge porn, is a criminal offence with perpetrators risking two years in prison.

It is far from an issue uniquely experienced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A study suggests that around 1.42% of the women in the UK is impacted by this form of abuse on an annual basis.

Madelaine, 37, explained victims endured shame and stigma. "In my view a lot of people will comment, 'you shared a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she said.

"I demand dignity, I expect consideration, 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 unacceptable, that's not my choice, that's not an error on my part, that's an individual committing abuse."

A Unique Journey

Madelaine has been practicing as a dominatrix, primarily online, for 10 years and consistently found her work empowering and fulfilling. "I am as a woman in control, 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 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 crazy 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 flaws and the changes that needed to happen," 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.

How Does the Technology Work?

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

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

This invisible watermark is encoded within the copy of the image itself and can withstand screen shots, being altered and being re-captured with a secondary device.

It means that if you discover your image has been shared without your consent, 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 forensic expert so action can be taken.

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

Proven Technology, New Application

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

"We have validated it, we're partnering with a firm that has 30 years experience 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 intimate image abusers.

Changing the Narrative

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

"If that self-blame 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 support somebody is provided with is that they have not done anything wrong," she stated.

She noted it was inspiring that Madelaine was using her experience to bring about change, saying: "It is vital to have this multi-layered approach 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 multi-layered response."

TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when images of her in her underwear were circulated within her local community. It was the first of several incidents Jess endured in her youth that would later shape her advocacy work.

"It took so long, too long for someone to say to me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," said Jess.

She too is passionate about removing the stigma of this crime from the victims to the offenders. "There is no offence to consensually send an photo to someone," stated Jess.

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