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BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas is not at all your typical startup entrepreneur. Following repeated instances of clients distributing her intimate photographs, she was "sufficiently outraged to take action" and turned to tech solutions for answers.

"These were beautiful pictures, I'm not ashamed of the pictures, I'm ashamed of the way that they were used against me by an individual who I have never met," explained Madelaine.

Little over a year since launching her company, Image Angel, which employs invisible forensic watermarking to identify perpetrators, has garnered significant recognition and was cited as exemplary procedure in an independent pornography review recently.

This marks quite a departure from her background in offering consensual sexual encounters, dominating clients in the world of kink and bondage.

The Pervasive Problem

Intimate image abuse, commonly known as image-based abuse, is a criminal offence with offenders risking two years in prison.

It is far from an issue uniquely experienced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A report indicates that around 1.42% of the women in the UK is impacted by intimate image abuse each year.

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

"I expect dignity, I expect consideration, and I expect confidence, and I fail to understand why those are negotiable," she continued. "The reality that those images could be subsequently distributed in my community or with my loved ones 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 someone being an abuser."

A Unique Journey

Madelaine has been practicing as a professional dominatrix, primarily online, for 10 years and consistently found her work empowering and fulfilling. "It's me as a dominant woman, a woman who is empowered and strong, offering my body as a gift to someone because I wish to," she said.

"People think it's strange but I don't see it any differently to a nutritionist or an financial advisor giving advice," she added.

She welcomes being something of an anomaly in the technology sector. "I know that it's bizarre, 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 flaws and the modifications that needed to happen," she stated.

She maintained she was not technically inclined and was able to build her company after many late nights, research and "consulting experts" who understand tech.

How Does the Technology Work?

Image Angel can be used by any online platform where people exchange photos, for instance dating apps, social networks and online sites.

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

This invisible watermark is encoded within the digital file of the image itself and can withstand screenshots, being edited and being photographed with a secondary device.

It means that if you discover your image has been circulated without your consent, providing 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 data recovery specialist 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 already exists in the film industry, it already exists in live television so this is not brand new technology, it's just a new application and a new system," explained Madelaine.

"We have validated it, we're collaborating with a company that has 30 years experience in tech development so we know that this is reliable and what we now need to do is test it at scale," she added.

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

Changing the Narrative

An expert from a support service said she had seen first-hand the panic, distress and self-blame this abuse caused for victims.

"When that guilt is reinforced by a misinformed friend or professional who says 'what did you expect?' that self blame can really be reinforced 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 fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, adding: "It is vital to have this comprehensive strategy 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 photographs of her in a state of undress were shared around her town. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess experienced in her youth that would later inform her women's rights campaigning.

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

She too is dedicated to eliminating the shame of intimate image abuse from the victims to the offenders. "It isn't a crime to willingly share an photo to someone," stated Jess.

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