BDSM practitioner Madelaine Thomas is not at all your average startup entrepreneur. After repeated instances of individuals distributing her intimate photographs, she was "angry enough to take action" and turned to tech solutions for a solution.
"Those were striking images, 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.
Little over a year since launching her venture, Image Angel, which employs invisible forensic watermarking to track abusers, has won several awards and was recommended as exemplary procedure in an government-commissioned study earlier this year.
This represents a significant shift from her background in offering consensual sexual encounters, dominating clients in the realms of kink and bondage.
The non-consensual sharing of private images, often referred to as image-based abuse, is a criminal offence with perpetrators facing up to two years in prison.
It is far from an issue exclusively faced by those in the adult entertainment sector. A report indicates that around 1.42% of the UK female population is impacted by intimate image abuse each year.
Madelaine, thirty-seven, said survivors endured feelings of humiliation. "I think a lot of people will say, 'you shared a saucy picture out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she said.
"I expect dignity, I expect respect, and I expect trust, and I don't see why those are negotiable," she added. "The reality that those images could be then shared in my community or with people I love and employed to cause them pain, that's beyond, that's not a decision I made, that's not my mistake, that's someone committing abuse."
Madelaine has been working as a professional dominatrix, primarily online, for a decade and consistently 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 of my own volition," she described.
"People think it's unusual but I don't see it any differently to a personal trainer or an financial advisor providing a service," she added.
She welcomes 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 founder of a tech company, but it required someone who has experienced it firsthand to understand the loopholes and the changes that were necessary," she explained.
She insisted she was not technically inclined and was able to build her company after a lot of late nights, investigation and "bugging people" who know about tech.
Image Angel can be used by any online platform where people exchange photos, for instance social connection apps, social media and websites.
When an image is accessed 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 screen shots, being edited and being photographed with a different camera.
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 viewer's details will be hidden within the image and can be extracted by a data recovery specialist so action can be taken.
Currently, one service has adopted her tech and she's in talks with many others.
"This technology is already in use in Hollywood, it is employed in sports broadcasting so this is not an untested concept, it's just a novel use and a different framework," explained Madelaine.
"We have validated it, we're partnering 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.
An advocate from a leading helpline said she had seen directly the trauma and guilt intimate image abuse inflicted on victims.
"If that self-blame is compounded by a uninformed acquaintance or professional who says 'what did you expect?' that self blame can really be reinforced so it's crucial that the support somebody is provided with is that they have not done anything wrong," she stated.
She added it was fantastic that Madelaine was using her experience to create solutions, saying: "It is really important to have this multi-layered approach towards tackling technology-enabled gender-based abuse, because a single solution is going to be able to tackle this alone, 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 advocacy work.
"It required years, an excessive amount of time for someone to tell me, 'it wasn't your fault' and 'that was wrong'," recalled Jess.
She too is passionate about removing the stigma of intimate image abuse from the victims to the perpetrators. "There is no offence to willingly share an photo to someone," said Jess.
"But it is a crime to circulate that non-consensually and I think that should invariably be where the responsibility is," she affirmed.
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