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BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas is far from your average tech founder. Following multiple occurrences of clients leaking her intimate photographs, she was "sufficiently outraged to do something about it" and looked to tech solutions for a solution.

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

Little over a year since founding her venture, Image Angel, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to identify abusers, has won several awards and was recommended as exemplary procedure in an government-commissioned study earlier this year.

This marks quite a departure from her background in offering BDSM services, dominating clients in the realms of BDSM.

A Widespread Issue

The non-consensual sharing of private images, often referred to as image-based abuse, is a punishable crime with perpetrators 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 affected by intimate image abuse each year.

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

"I demand dignity, I expect respect, and I expect trust, and I don't see why those are up for debate," she continued. "The reality that those images could be then shared where I live or with people I love and used to hurt them, that's beyond, that's not a decision I made, that's not an error on my part, that's an individual being an abuser."

An Unconventional Path

Madelaine has been practicing as a dominatrix, primarily online, for a decade and consistently found her work liberating and satisfying. "I am as a woman in control, a woman who is empowered and strong, giving my body as a gift to someone of my own volition," she said.

"People think it's strange but I view it similarly to a personal trainer or an financial advisor giving advice," she added.

She welcomes being a unique figure in the technology sector. "I know that it's bizarre, it's crazy to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a creator of a tech company, but it took someone who has been through it to understand the loopholes and the modifications that were necessary," she stated.

She insisted she was not technically inclined and was managed to build her company after a lot of late nights, investigation and "consulting experts" who understand tech.

How Does the Technology Work?

Image Angel can be used by any digital service where people share images, for instance dating apps, social media and online sites.

When an image is viewed 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 screenshots, being edited and being re-captured with a different camera.

It means that if you discover your image has been circulated non-consensually, as long as the platform you posted it on has the technology embedded, the sharer's information will be encoded in the image and can be retrieved by a forensic expert so legal steps can follow.

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

Proven Technology, New Application

"The system already exists in the film industry, it already exists in sports broadcasting so this is not an untested concept, it's just a new application and a new system," explained Madelaine.

"And we've tested it, we're collaborating 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 test it at scale," she added.

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

Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame

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 misinformed friend or service who says 'well, why did you take those images in the first place?' that self blame can really be deepened so it's crucial that the support somebody is provided with is that they have not done anything wrong," she emphasized.

She added it was inspiring that Madelaine was using her experience to bring about change, saying: "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 tackle this alone, not just support services, it needs to be this integrated effort."

TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when photographs of her in her underwear were shared around her town. 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 say to me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that was wrong'," said 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.

"But it is a crime to distribute that non-consensually and I think that should invariably be where the responsibility is," she affirmed.