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Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas is far from your average startup entrepreneur. Following multiple occurrences of clients leaking her private explicit images, she was "sufficiently outraged to do something about it" and looked to tech solutions for answers.

"These were beautiful pictures, I'm unapologetic of the pictures, I'm embarrassed of the manner that they were used against me by someone who I have never met," stated Madelaine.

Just over a year since founding 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 represents a significant shift from her previous career in offering BDSM services, working with clients in the world of BDSM.

A Widespread Issue

Intimate image abuse, often referred to 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 study suggests that approximately 1.42% of the women in the UK is impacted by intimate image abuse each year.

Madelaine, thirty-seven, explained survivors lived with feelings of humiliation. "In my view a lot of people will say, 'you shared a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she said.

"I expect dignity, I expect consideration, and I expect trust, and I fail to understand why those are negotiable," she added. "The reality that those images could be then shared where I live or with my loved ones and used to hurt them, that's unacceptable, that's not my choice, that's not an error on my part, that's someone being an abuser."

A Unique Journey

Madelaine has been working as a professional dominatrix, primarily 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 don't see it any differently to a nutritionist or an accountant giving advice," she remarked.

She embraces being a unique figure in the world of tech. "I know that it's bizarre, it's remarkable to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a creator of a technology firm, but it required someone who has been through it to understand the loopholes 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 many sleepless nights, investigation and "consulting experts" who understand tech.

How Does the Technology Work?

Image Angel can be implemented on any online platform where people exchange photos, for instance social connection apps, social media and online sites.

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 digital file of the image itself and can survive screenshots, being edited and being re-captured with a different camera.

It ensures that if you discover your image has been circulated non-consensually, providing the service you posted it on has the system integrated, the sharer's information will be encoded in the image and can be retrieved by a forensic expert so action can be taken.

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

Proven Technology, New Application

"This technology is already in use in Hollywood, it is employed in sports broadcasting so this is not brand new technology, it's just a new application and a new system," said Madelaine.

"And we've tested it, we're partnering with a company that has decades of expertise in tech development so we are confident that this is reliable and what we now need to do is test it at scale," she continued.

She said she believed the technology would also act as a preventive measure to potential intimate image abusers.

Changing the Narrative

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

"If that self-blame is reinforced by a uninformed acquaintance or service who says 'what did you expect?' that self blame 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 added it was fantastic that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to bring about change, saying: "It is vital to have this comprehensive strategy towards addressing technology-enabled 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 just 15 when images of her in a state of undress were shared around her local community. It was the first of several incidents Jess endured in her youth that would later inform her women's rights campaigning.

"It required years, an excessive amount of time for someone to tell 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 survivors to the offenders. "There is no offence to willingly share an photo to someone," said Jess.

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