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BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas is far from your average startup entrepreneur. Following repeated instances of individuals distributing her intimate photographs, she was "angry enough to do something about it" and looked to technology for a solution.

"Those were beautiful pictures, I'm unapologetic of the pictures, I'm ashamed of the way that they were used against me by someone who I have never met," said Madelaine.

Little over a year after founding her venture, Image Angel, which employs covert digital tracking to identify abusers, has won several awards and was cited as best practice in an independent pornography review earlier this year.

This marks quite a departure from her previous career in providing BDSM services, working with clients in the world of kink and bondage.

The Pervasive Problem

The non-consensual sharing of private images, often referred to as image-based abuse, is a criminal offence with offenders facing up to two years in prison.

It is far from an issue uniquely experienced by those in the sex industry. A study suggests that around 1.42% of the women in the UK is impacted by intimate image abuse on an annual basis.

Madelaine, 37, said 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 respect, and I expect trust, and I don't see why those are negotiable," she continued. "The reality that those images could be then shared in my community or with my loved ones 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 someone committing abuse."

An Unconventional Path

Madelaine has been working as a professional dominatrix, primarily online, for 10 years and always found her work empowering and fulfilling. "It's me as a woman in control, a woman who is empowered and strong, offering my body as a treat to someone because I wish to," she said.

"People think it's strange but I view it similarly to a personal trainer or an financial advisor giving advice," she remarked.

She embraces being a unique figure in the world of tech. "I understand that it's bizarre, it's crazy to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now a creator of a tech company, but it required someone who has been through it to know the flaws and the changes that needed to happen," she explained.

She insisted she was not technically inclined and was able to build her company after a lot of late nights, research and "bugging people" who know about tech.

Understanding the Tech Solution

Image Angel can be implemented on any digital service where people exchange photos, for instance social connection apps, social media and websites.

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

This invisible watermark is encoded within the digital file of the image itself and can survive screen shots, being edited and being photographed with a secondary device.

It ensures that if you find out your image has been circulated non-consensually, as long as the service you posted it on has the system integrated, the viewer's details will be encoded in the image and can be extracted by a data recovery specialist so legal steps can follow.

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

An Established Method for a New Purpose

"The system already exists in Hollywood, it already exists in live television so this is not brand new technology, it's just a novel use and a different framework," explained Madelaine.

"We have validated it, we're partnering with a company 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 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 said she had seen directly the trauma and guilt intimate image abuse inflicted on victims.

"When that guilt is reinforced 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 somebody is provided with is that they have committed no error," she stated.

She added it was fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, adding: "It is really important to have this multi-layered approach towards addressing technology-enabled gender-based 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 shared around her local community. It was the beginning of multiple violations Jess endured in her teens and 20s that would later shape 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 was wrong'," said Jess.

She too is dedicated to eliminating the shame of this crime from the victims to the offenders. "It isn't a crime to willingly share an image to someone," said Jess.

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