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Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas is not at all your typical startup entrepreneur. Following repeated occurrences of individuals leaking her private explicit images, she felt "angry enough to do something about it" and turned to technology for answers.

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

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

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

A Widespread Issue

Intimate image abuse, often referred to as revenge porn, is a criminal offence with offenders risking two years in prison.

It is not at all an issue exclusively faced by those in the sex industry. A report suggests that approximately 1.42% of the UK female population is affected by this form of abuse each year.

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

"I demand respect, I expect respect, and I expect trust, and I fail to understand why those are up for debate," she added. "The fact that those images could be subsequently distributed in my community 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 someone committing abuse."

A Unique Journey

Madelaine has been working as a professional dominatrix, mainly online, for a decade and consistently found her work liberating and satisfying. "It's me as a dominant woman, a woman who is confident and powerful, giving my body as a gift to someone of my own volition," she described.

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

She embraces being a unique figure in the world of tech. "I understand that it's unconventional, it's remarkable to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a tech company, but it took someone who has been through it to understand the flaws and the modifications that needed to happen," she explained.

She insisted she was not in the least bit techy and was able to build her company after a lot of sleepless nights, research and "bugging people" who know about tech.

Understanding the Tech Solution

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

When an image is viewed by a user, it is automatically embedded with an invisible forensic watermark which is unique to them.

This invisible watermark is embedded into the copy of the image itself and can survive screen shots, being altered and being re-captured with a different camera.

It means that if you find out your image has been shared without your consent, as long as the service you used has the technology embedded, the sharer's information will be hidden within the image and can be extracted by a data recovery specialist so action can be taken.

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

Proven Technology, New Application

"The system already exists in Hollywood, it already exists in live television so this is not an untested concept, 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 expressed hope she believed the technology would also act as a preventive measure to would-be intimate image abusers.

Changing the Narrative

An expert from a leading helpline said she had seen directly the panic, distress and self-blame this abuse caused for victims.

"When that guilt is reinforced by a uninformed acquaintance or professional who says 'what did you expect?' that self blame can really be reinforced so it's crucial that the response somebody is provided with is that they have committed no error," she stated.

She added it was fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, adding: "It is vital to have this multi-layered approach towards tackling 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 integrated effort."

TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when images of her in her underwear were shared around her local community. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess endured in her teens and 20s that would later inform her women's rights campaigning.

"It required years, too long for someone to tell me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," said Jess.

She too is dedicated to removing the stigma of intimate image abuse from the victims to the offenders. "There is no offence to consensually send an photo to someone," said Jess.

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