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BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas embodies not at all your typical tech founder. Following multiple instances of individuals distributing her private explicit images, she felt "sufficiently outraged to take action" and looked to technology for a solution.

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

Just over a year since launching her company, Image Angel, which uses covert digital tracking to identify perpetrators, has won several awards and was recommended as exemplary procedure in an government-commissioned study recently.

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

A Widespread Issue

The non-consensual sharing of private images, often referred to as revenge porn, is a punishable crime with perpetrators facing up to two years in prison.

It is far from an issue exclusively faced by those in the sex industry. A study indicates that approximately 1.42% of the women in the UK is impacted by this form of abuse on an annual basis.

Madelaine, thirty-seven, said survivors endured shame and stigma. "In my view a lot of people will say, 'you put a private image out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she noted.

"I expect dignity, I expect respect, and I expect confidence, and I don't see why those are negotiable," she added. "The fact that those images could be subsequently distributed where I live or with people I love and used to hurt them, that's unacceptable, that's not my choice, that's not an error on my part, that's someone being an abuser."

A Unique Journey

Madelaine has been working as a professional dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and consistently found her work liberating and satisfying. "I am 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 strange but I view it similarly to a nutritionist or an financial advisor giving advice," she added.

She embraces being a unique figure in the world of tech. "I know that it's bizarre, it's crazy to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a technology firm, but it required someone who has been through it to know the flaws and the modifications that were necessary," she explained.

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

How Does the Technology Work?

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

When an image is accessed by a viewer, it is seamlessly tagged with an undetectable digital marker which is unique to them.

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

It ensures 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 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 talks with many others.

Proven Technology, New Application

"This technology already exists in the film industry, it already exists in live television so this is not an untested concept, it's just a novel use and a different framework," said Madelaine.

"And we've tested it, we're collaborating with a company that has decades of expertise in tech development so we are confident that this is reliable 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 preventive measure to would-be intimate image abusers.

Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame

An advocate from a support service commented she had seen first-hand the panic, distress and self-blame intimate image abuse caused for victims.

"If that self-blame is compounded by a misinformed friend or service who says 'well, why did you take those images in the first place?' that guilt can really be reinforced so it's really important that the support somebody is provided with is that they have not done anything wrong," she stated.

She noted it was fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to bring about change, adding: "It is really important to have this comprehensive strategy towards tackling tech facilitated gender-based abuse, because no one tool is going to be able to tackle this alone, no one helpline, it needs to be this multi-layered response."

TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when images of her in her underwear were circulated within her local community. It was the first of several incidents Jess endured in her teens and 20s that would later shape her advocacy work.

"It required years, too long for someone to say to me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that was wrong'," said Jess.

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

"However, it is illegal to circulate that non-consensually and I think that should always be where the blame is," she affirmed.