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Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas is far from your standard tech founder. After multiple instances of individuals distributing her private explicit images, she was "angry enough to do something about it" and looked to tech solutions for answers.

"Those were beautiful pictures, I'm not ashamed of the photographs, I'm embarrassed of the manner that they were used against me by an individual who I have never met," stated Madelaine.

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

This marks a significant shift from her previous career in providing BDSM services, dominating clients in the world of BDSM.

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 uniquely experienced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A report indicates that approximately 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by intimate image abuse each year.

Madelaine, thirty-seven, explained survivors lived with shame and stigma. "I think a lot of people will say, 'you shared a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she said.

"I demand respect, I expect consideration, and I expect confidence, and I don't see why those are negotiable," she added. "The reality that those images could be subsequently distributed in my community or with my loved ones and employed to cause them pain, that's unacceptable, that's not my choice, 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 a decade and always found her work empowering and fulfilling. "It's me as a woman in control, a woman who is confident and powerful, giving my body as a treat to someone because I wish to," she said.

"Some believe it's unusual but I don't see it any differently to a personal trainer or an accountant providing a service," she added.

She welcomes being a unique figure in the technology sector. "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 took someone who has been through it to understand the loopholes and the changes that were necessary," she explained.

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

Understanding the Tech Solution

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

When an image is viewed by a user, it is seamlessly tagged with an invisible forensic watermark which is unique to them.

This invisible watermark is encoded within the digital file of the image itself and can survive screenshots, being edited and being re-captured with a secondary device.

It means that if you discover your image has been circulated without your consent, as long as the service you used has the system integrated, the viewer's details will be encoded in the image and can be extracted by a forensic expert so legal steps can follow.

Currently, one platform has adopted her tech and she's in talks with many others.

An Established Method for a New Purpose

"The system 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 different framework," explained Madelaine.

"And we've tested it, we're collaborating with a firm that has 30 years experience in developing technology so we are confident that this is solid 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 deterrent to potential perpetrators.

Changing the Narrative

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

"When that guilt is reinforced by a misinformed friend or professional who says 'what did you expect?' that self blame can really be reinforced so it's crucial 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 create solutions, adding: "It is really important to have this multi-layered approach towards addressing tech facilitated gender-based abuse, because no one tool 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 photographs of her in her underwear were circulated within her local community. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess endured in her youth that would later inform her women's rights campaigning.

"It required years, too long for someone to tell me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that was wrong'," recalled Jess.

She too is dedicated to removing the stigma of intimate image abuse from the survivors to the perpetrators. "It isn't a crime to consensually send an image to someone," stated Jess.

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