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BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas embodies not at all your typical startup entrepreneur. Following repeated occurrences of individuals leaking her intimate photographs, she felt "angry enough to take action" and turned to technology for a solution.

"Those were beautiful pictures, I'm not ashamed of the pictures, I'm ashamed of the manner that they were used against me by an individual who I don't know," said Madelaine.

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

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

The Pervasive Problem

Intimate image abuse, commonly known as image-based abuse, is a punishable crime with perpetrators facing up to two years in prison.

It is not at all an issue exclusively faced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A report suggests that approximately 1.42% of the UK female population is affected by this form of abuse each year.

Madelaine, 37, said survivors lived with feelings of humiliation. "I think a lot of people will say, 'you shared a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you expect?'," she said.

"I expect dignity, I expect consideration, and I expect confidence, and I don't see why those are up for debate," she continued. "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 beyond, that's not a decision I made, that's not my mistake, that's an individual committing abuse."

A Unique Journey

Madelaine has been working as a dominatrix, primarily online, for a decade and always found her work empowering and fulfilling. "I am as a dominant woman, a woman who is confident and powerful, offering my body as a treat to someone of my own volition," she described.

"Some believe it's unusual but I view it similarly to a personal trainer or an accountant giving advice," she remarked.

She embraces being something of an anomaly in the world of tech. "I understand that it's unconventional, 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 flaws and the changes that were necessary," she stated.

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

Understanding the Tech Solution

Image Angel can be used by any online platform where people exchange photos, for instance dating apps, social media and websites.

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 embedded into the digital file of the image itself and can survive screen shots, being altered and being re-captured with a secondary device.

It means that if you discover your image has been shared non-consensually, as long as the service you used has the system integrated, the sharer's information will be encoded in the image and can be retrieved by a data recovery specialist so action can be taken.

To date, one platform has adopted her tech and she's in discussions with many others.

Proven Technology, New Application

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

"And we've tested it, we're collaborating with a company that has decades of expertise in tech development so we know that this is solid and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she added.

She said she hoped the technology would also act as a preventive measure to potential perpetrators.

Changing the Narrative

An advocate from a leading helpline said she had seen first-hand the trauma and guilt intimate image abuse caused for victims.

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

She added it was inspiring that Madelaine was using her experience to bring about change, saying: "It is vital to have this multi-layered approach towards addressing 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 multi-layered response."

TV presenter Jess Davies was just 15 when photographs of her in a state of undress were circulated within her town. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess endured in her youth that would later inform her women's rights campaigning.

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

She too is dedicated to eliminating the shame of intimate image abuse from the victims to the perpetrators. "There is no offence to consensually send an image to someone," said Jess.

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