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BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas represents not at all your standard tech founder. After repeated instances of individuals leaking her intimate photographs, she was "sufficiently outraged to do something about it" and looked to technology for a solution.

"These were striking images, I'm not ashamed of the pictures, I'm ashamed of the manner that they were used against me by someone who I have never met," explained Madelaine.

Just over a year after launching her company, Image Angel, which employs invisible forensic watermarking to identify perpetrators, has won several awards and was cited as exemplary procedure in an government-commissioned study recently.

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

The Pervasive Problem

Intimate image abuse, often referred to as revenge porn, 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 adult entertainment sector. A study indicates that approximately 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by intimate image abuse each year.

Madelaine, thirty-seven, said victims endured feelings of humiliation. "In my view 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 consideration, and I expect trust, and I fail to understand why those are negotiable," she continued. "The fact that those images could be then shared where I live or with people I love and used to hurt them, that's unacceptable, that's not a decision I made, that's not my mistake, that's an individual committing abuse."

A Unique Journey

Madelaine has been working as a professional dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and always 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 because I wish to," 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 remarked.

She welcomes being something of an anomaly 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 creator of a technology firm, but it required someone who has experienced it firsthand to know the flaws and the changes that needed to happen," she explained.

She insisted she was not technically inclined and was managed to build her company after many late nights, research and "bugging people" who understand tech.

How Does the Technology Work?

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

When an image is accessed by a viewer, it is automatically embedded with an invisible forensic watermark which is specific to that viewer.

This covert marker 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 discover your image has been circulated non-consensually, providing the platform you posted it on has the technology embedded, the viewer's details will be hidden within the image and can be extracted by a forensic expert so legal steps can follow.

Currently, one service has adopted her tech and she's in talks with several more.

Proven Technology, New Application

"This technology already exists in Hollywood, it already exists in live television so this is not brand new technology, it's just a new application and a new system," said Madelaine.

"We have validated it, we're collaborating with a firm that has decades of expertise in developing technology so we know that this is solid and what we now need to do is test it at scale," she added.

She said she hoped the technology would also act as a deterrent to would-be intimate image abusers.

Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame

An advocate from a support service commented she had seen first-hand the trauma and guilt intimate image abuse inflicted on victims.

"When that guilt is compounded 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 a victim receives is that they have committed no error," she emphasized.

She added it was fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, adding: "It is really important to have this comprehensive strategy towards tackling technology-enabled abuse, because a single solution 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 only fifteen when photographs of her in a state of undress 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 advocacy work.

"It took so long, too long for someone to say to me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that was wrong'," recalled Jess.

She too is dedicated to removing the stigma of this crime from the victims to the perpetrators. "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 blame is," she concluded.