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BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas is far from your typical startup entrepreneur. Following repeated occurrences of clients leaking her private explicit images, she was "sufficiently outraged to do something about it" and turned to technology for a solution.

"Those were striking images, I'm not ashamed of the photographs, I'm embarrassed of the way that they were used against me by someone who I have never met," said Madelaine.

Little over a year since founding her company, Image Angel, which uses invisible forensic watermarking to track perpetrators, has won several awards and was cited as best practice in an independent pornography review recently.

This marks a significant shift from her background in offering consensual sexual encounters, working with clients in the realms of kink and bondage.

The Pervasive Problem

The non-consensual sharing of private images, often referred to as revenge porn, is a criminal offence with perpetrators risking two years in prison.

It is far from an issue uniquely experienced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A report indicates that around 1.42% of the UK female population is affected by intimate image abuse each year.

Madelaine, thirty-seven, said survivors lived with feelings of humiliation. "I think a lot of people will comment, 'you put a private image out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she said.

"I expect respect, I expect consideration, and I expect trust, and I fail to understand why those are negotiable," she continued. "The fact that those images could be subsequently distributed in my community or with my loved ones and used to hurt them, that's unacceptable, that's not my choice, that's not my mistake, that's someone committing abuse."

A Unique Journey

Madelaine has been practicing as a professional dominatrix, mainly online, for 10 years and always 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 gift to someone of my own volition," she said.

"Some believe it's unusual but I view it similarly to a nutritionist or an accountant providing a service," she added.

She welcomes being a unique figure in the world of tech. "I know that it's bizarre, it's remarkable to think that an individual who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a technology firm, but it took someone who has been through it to understand the flaws and the changes that needed to happen," she explained.

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

How Does the Technology Work?

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

When an image is viewed by a user, it is automatically embedded with an invisible forensic watermark which is specific to that viewer.

This covert marker is encoded within the digital file of the image itself and can withstand screen shots, being altered and being photographed with a secondary device.

It ensures that if you discover your image has been circulated without your consent, as long as the service you used has the technology embedded, the viewer's details will be encoded in the image and can be retrieved by a data recovery specialist so legal steps can follow.

Currently, one platform has implemented her tech and she's in talks with several more.

Proven Technology, New Application

"The system already exists in Hollywood, it is employed in live television so this is not an untested concept, it's just a new application and a new system," said Madelaine.

"We have validated it, we're collaborating with a company that has decades of expertise in developing technology so we are confident that this is reliable and what we now need to do is deploy it widely," she continued.

She expressed hope she hoped the technology would also act as a deterrent to would-be intimate image abusers.

Changing the Narrative

An expert from a leading helpline said she had seen directly the trauma and guilt this abuse inflicted on victims.

"When that guilt is reinforced by a misinformed friend or professional who says 'well, why did you take those images in the first place?' that self blame can really be reinforced so it's crucial that the response 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, saying: "It is vital to have this comprehensive strategy towards tackling technology-enabled 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 just 15 when images of her in a state of undress 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, 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 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 distribute that without consent and I think that should always be where the responsibility is," she concluded.