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Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas is not at all your average tech founder. After repeated occurrences of individuals leaking her private explicit images, she was "angry enough to take action" and turned to technology for a solution.

"These 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 don't know," explained Madelaine.

Little over a year after founding her company, Image Angel, which employs invisible forensic watermarking to track perpetrators, has garnered significant recognition and was recommended 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 realms of kink and bondage.

A Widespread Issue

Intimate image abuse, commonly known as image-based abuse, is a punishable crime 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 around 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by this form of abuse each year.

Madelaine, 37, said victims endured shame and stigma. "I think a lot of people will say, 'you shared a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she noted.

"I expect respect, I expect consideration, and I expect confidence, and I fail to understand why those are up for debate," she added. "The fact that those images could be subsequently distributed where I live or with people I love and employed to cause them pain, that's unacceptable, that's not my choice, that's not an error on my part, that's an individual committing abuse."

A Unique Journey

Madelaine has been practicing as a professional dominatrix, mainly online, for a decade and always found her work liberating and satisfying. "It's me as a woman in control, a woman who is confident and powerful, giving my body as a gift to someone because I wish to," she said.

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

She embraces being something of an anomaly in the world of tech. "I understand that it's bizarre, it's remarkable to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a creator of a tech company, but it required someone who has been through it to understand the loopholes and the modifications that needed to happen," she explained.

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

How Does the Technology Work?

Image Angel can be implemented on any online platform where people share images, for instance dating apps, social networks and websites.

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

This invisible watermark is embedded into the digital file of the image itself and can survive screenshots, being altered and being re-captured with a secondary device.

It ensures that if you find out your image has been circulated without your consent, providing the platform you used has the system integrated, the viewer's details will be encoded in the image and can be extracted by a forensic expert so action can be taken.

Currently, one service has implemented her tech and she's in discussions with many others.

Proven Technology, New Application

"The system already exists in the film industry, it already exists in sports broadcasting so this is not brand new technology, it's just a novel use and a different framework," said Madelaine.

"And we've tested it, we're partnering 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 continued.

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

Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame

An advocate from a support service said she had seen directly the trauma and guilt intimate image abuse caused for victims.

"When that guilt is reinforced by a misinformed friend or professional who says 'well, why did you take those images in the first place?' that self blame can really be reinforced so it's really important that the support a victim receives is that they have committed no error," she stated.

She noted it was fantastic that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to create solutions, 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 solve this problem, no one helpline, 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 circulated within her town. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess endured in her teens and 20s that would later inform her advocacy work.

"It took so long, too long for someone to tell me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," said Jess.

She too is passionate about removing the stigma of this crime from the survivors to the offenders. "There is no offence to willingly share an photo to someone," said Jess.

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