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Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas embodies not at all your standard startup entrepreneur. Following multiple occurrences of individuals leaking her private explicit images, she felt "sufficiently outraged to take action" and looked to tech solutions for answers.

"These were striking images, I'm not ashamed of the photographs, I'm embarrassed of the manner that they were weaponized by an individual who I have never met," explained Madelaine.

Little over a year since launching her company, Image Angel, which uses covert digital tracking to identify abusers, has won several awards and was cited as best practice in an government-commissioned study earlier this year.

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

A Widespread Issue

The non-consensual sharing of private images, commonly known as revenge porn, is a punishable crime with offenders risking two years in prison.

It is not at all an issue uniquely experienced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A report indicates that around 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by this form of abuse each year.

Madelaine, 37, explained victims endured feelings of humiliation. "In my view a lot of people will comment, 'you put a private image out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she noted.

"I expect respect, I expect respect, and I expect confidence, and I don't see why those are up for debate," she continued. "The reality that those images could be then shared where I live or with my loved ones and employed to cause them pain, that's unacceptable, that's not a decision I made, that's not my mistake, that's someone committing abuse."

An Unconventional Path

Madelaine has been practicing as a professional dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and always found her work liberating and satisfying. "I am as a dominant woman, a woman who is empowered and strong, offering my body as a gift to someone of my own volition," she said.

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

She welcomes being a unique figure in the technology sector. "I understand that it's bizarre, it's remarkable to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a technology firm, but it took someone who has experienced it firsthand to know the flaws and the changes that were necessary," she explained.

She insisted she was not technically inclined and was managed to build her company after many late nights, investigation and "consulting experts" who understand tech.

How Does the Technology Work?

Image Angel can be used by any digital service where people exchange photos, for instance dating apps, social networks and websites.

When an image is accessed by a user, it is seamlessly tagged with an invisible forensic watermark which is specific to that viewer.

This invisible watermark 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 find out your image has been circulated non-consensually, providing the service you used has the technology embedded, the sharer's information will be encoded in the image and can be extracted by a forensic expert so action can be taken.

Currently, one platform has adopted 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 an untested concept, it's just a new application and a different framework," 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 reliable and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she continued.

She expressed hope she believed the technology would also act as a preventive measure to potential intimate image abusers.

Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame

An expert from a leading helpline said she had seen first-hand the panic, distress and self-blame this abuse inflicted on victims.

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

She added it was fantastic that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to bring about change, adding: "It is vital 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 multi-layered response."

TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when photographs of her in her underwear were circulated within her town. It was the first of several incidents Jess experienced in her teens and 20s that would later inform her advocacy work.

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

She too is passionate about eliminating the shame of this crime from the survivors to the offenders. "It isn't a crime to willingly share an image to someone," stated Jess.

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