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Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas represents not at all your average startup entrepreneur. Following repeated occurrences of clients leaking her intimate photographs, she was "angry enough to do something about it" and looked to tech solutions for answers.

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

Little over a year since launching her venture, Image Angel, which uses covert digital tracking to identify perpetrators, has garnered significant recognition and was cited as best practice in an government-commissioned study earlier this year.

This represents a significant shift from her previous career in offering BDSM services, dominating clients in the realms of BDSM.

A Widespread Issue

The non-consensual sharing of private images, commonly known as revenge porn, 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 report indicates that around 1.42% of the UK female population is affected by this form of abuse on an annual basis.

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 expect dignity, I expect respect, and I expect confidence, and I don't see why those are up for debate," she added. "The reality that those images could be subsequently distributed in my community or with people I love and employed to cause them pain, that's unacceptable, that's not a decision I made, that's not an error on my part, that's an individual being an abuser."

An Unconventional Path

Madelaine has been practicing as a professional dominatrix, primarily online, for 10 years and consistently found her work liberating and satisfying. "It's me as a dominant woman, a woman who is confident and powerful, offering my body as a treat to someone because I wish to," she said.

"People think it's unusual but I view it similarly to a nutritionist or an financial advisor giving advice," she added.

She embraces being something of an anomaly in the world of tech. "I know that it's bizarre, it's crazy 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 flaws and the changes that needed to happen," she explained.

She maintained she was not in the least bit techy and was able to build her company after many sleepless nights, investigation 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 websites.

When an image is accessed by a user, it is seamlessly tagged with an undetectable digital marker which is specific to that viewer.

This covert marker is embedded into the copy of the image itself and can survive screenshots, being edited and being re-captured with a different camera.

It means that if you discover your image has been circulated non-consensually, providing the service you posted it on has the technology embedded, the viewer's details will be encoded in the image and can be retrieved by a forensic expert so action can be taken.

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

Proven Technology, New Application

"The system is already in use in Hollywood, it already exists in sports broadcasting so this is not an untested concept, it's just a new application and a new system," explained Madelaine.

"And we've tested it, we're partnering with a company that has 30 years experience in developing technology so we know that this is reliable and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she added.

She expressed hope she believed the technology would also act as a preventive measure to would-be perpetrators.

Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame

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

"If that self-blame is compounded by a misinformed friend or service who says 'what did you expect?' that guilt can really be deepened so it's crucial that the support a victim receives is that they have not done anything wrong," she stated.

She added it was fantastic that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to bring about change, saying: "It is really important to have this multi-layered approach towards tackling technology-enabled abuse, because a single solution is going to be able to solve this problem, not just support services, it needs to be this integrated effort."

TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when images of her in her underwear were circulated within her town. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess experienced in her youth that would later shape her advocacy work.

"It required years, an excessive amount of time for someone to say to me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that shouldn't have happened'," recalled Jess.

She too is dedicated to removing the stigma of this crime from the survivors to the perpetrators. "There is no offence to willingly share an photo to someone," stated Jess.

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