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Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas embodies not at all your typical tech founder. Following repeated instances of individuals leaking her private explicit images, 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 way that they were weaponized by someone who I don't know," stated Madelaine.

Just over a year since launching her venture, Image Angel, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to identify perpetrators, has won several awards and was recommended as best practice in an independent pornography review recently.

This represents a significant shift from her background in offering BDSM services, dominating clients in the world of kink and bondage.

A Widespread Issue

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

It is not at all an issue exclusively faced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A study indicates that approximately 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by this form of abuse each year.

Madelaine, 37, said victims lived with feelings of humiliation. "I think a lot of people will say, 'you put a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she said.

"I expect respect, I expect respect, and I expect confidence, 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 people I love and employed to cause them pain, that's beyond, that's not a decision I made, that's not an error on my part, that's someone committing abuse."

A Unique Journey

Madelaine has been working as a professional dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and consistently found her work liberating and satisfying. "I am as a woman in control, a woman who is confident and powerful, offering my body as a treat to someone of my own volition," she described.

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

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 technology firm, but it required someone who has experienced it firsthand to know the flaws and the changes 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 know about tech.

Understanding the Tech Solution

Image Angel can be used by any digital service where people exchange photos, for instance social connection apps, social media and websites.

When an image is accessed by a viewer, it is seamlessly tagged with an undetectable digital marker which is unique to them.

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

It means that if you find out your image has been shared non-consensually, as long as the platform you posted it on has the system integrated, the viewer's details will be encoded in the image and can be extracted 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.

An Established Method for a New Purpose

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

"And we've tested it, we're collaborating with a firm that has decades of expertise in developing technology so we are confident that this is solid and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she added.

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

Changing the Narrative

An expert from a support service said she had seen directly the panic, distress and self-blame intimate image abuse caused for victims.

"If that self-blame is reinforced by a uninformed acquaintance or professional who says 'what did you expect?' that self blame can really be deepened so it's really important that the support a victim receives is that they have not done anything wrong," she emphasized.

She noted it was fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to bring about change, adding: "It is really important to have this comprehensive strategy towards addressing tech facilitated abuse, because a single solution is going to be able to tackle this alone, no one helpline, it needs to be this multi-layered response."

TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when photographs of her in a state of undress were shared around her local community. It was the first of several incidents Jess experienced in her youth that would later shape her advocacy work.

"It required years, an excessive amount of time for someone to tell me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that was wrong'," recalled Jess.

She too is passionate about eliminating the shame of this crime from the victims to the offenders. "It isn't a crime to willingly share an image to someone," said Jess.

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