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BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas is far from your average tech founder. Following multiple occurrences of individuals leaking her private explicit images, she felt "angry enough to do something about it" and turned to tech solutions for a solution.

"Those were striking images, I'm unapologetic of the photographs, I'm embarrassed of the manner that they were used against me by an individual who I don't know," explained Madelaine.

Little over a year since founding her company, Image Angel, which uses covert digital tracking to track perpetrators, has garnered significant recognition and was cited as exemplary procedure in an government-commissioned study earlier this year.

This marks a significant shift from her previous career in providing consensual sexual encounters, working with clients in the world of kink and bondage.

The Pervasive Problem

The non-consensual sharing of private images, commonly known as image-based abuse, is a punishable crime with perpetrators risking two years in prison.

It is not at all an issue exclusively faced by those in the sex industry. A study suggests that around 1.42% of the women in the UK is impacted by intimate image abuse each year.

Madelaine, thirty-seven, said survivors endured feelings of humiliation. "In my view a lot of people will say, 'you put a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she said.

"I demand dignity, 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 where I live or with my loved ones and employed to cause them pain, that's beyond, that's not my choice, that's not my mistake, that's an individual committing abuse."

An Unconventional Path

Madelaine has been working as a professional dominatrix, primarily 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 of my own volition," she said.

"Some believe it's unusual but I don't see it any differently to a personal trainer or an financial advisor giving advice," she added.

She welcomes being something of an anomaly in the technology sector. "I understand that it's bizarre, it's crazy to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a tech company, but it took someone who has experienced it firsthand to understand the loopholes and the modifications that needed to happen," she stated.

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

How Does the Technology Work?

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

When an image is accessed by a user, it is automatically embedded with an undetectable digital marker which is unique to them.

This covert marker is encoded within the copy of the image itself and can withstand screen shots, being edited and being photographed with a secondary device.

It ensures that if you discover your image has been shared without your consent, as long as the platform you posted it on has the technology embedded, the viewer's details will be encoded in the image and can be extracted by a data recovery specialist so legal steps can follow.

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

An Established Method for a New Purpose

"This technology is already in use 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," said Madelaine.

"And we've tested it, we're partnering with a company that has 30 years experience in developing technology so we are confident that this is solid 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 would-be perpetrators.

Changing the Narrative

An expert from a support service commented she had seen directly the panic, distress and self-blame this abuse inflicted on victims.

"If that self-blame is reinforced by a misinformed friend or service who says 'what did you expect?' that guilt can really be deepened so it's really important that the support somebody is provided with is that they have committed no error," she stated.

She noted it was inspiring that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, adding: "It is really important to have this comprehensive strategy towards addressing technology-enabled abuse, because a single solution 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 just 15 when images of her in a state of undress were circulated within her local community. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess endured in her youth that would later shape her advocacy work.

"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 removing the stigma of intimate image abuse from the victims to the perpetrators. "It isn't a crime to consensually send 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.