What is Reset the Net?

Today, you may have received a popup notification from Google Chrome about something called Reset the Net. Maybe you saw something in your newsfeed, or on a WordPress website. What is Reset the Net exactly?

#ResetTheNet is a campaign and day of action, collaborated upon by some of the ruling monarchs of the internet space, including Google, Yahoo, WordPress, Twitter, Mozilla, Reddit, and Dropbox, as well as many privacy and freedom advocacy groups including GreenPeace and Pirate Party – to bring an additional layer of security and privacy to the internet by distributing NSA-resistant privacy tools. The creators of Reset the Net are urging website owners and internet users everywhere to install splash screens on their websites, including this plugin from WordPress.

Privacy Pack

Available to download off of the Reset The Net website, these tools provide a small range of tools for a nearly comprehensive spread of devices and operating systems. The phone security tools that provide secure chat, text, and phone connections, as well as password tools to diversify your online passwords and for your mobile lock screen, while Mac, Windows, and Linux users have the option of downloading chat encryption tools like Adium, Pidgin, and secure browsing tools like Tor.

Contributors

The campaign is targeted to not only promote user downloads of secure tools, but is also coming from the business side of the privacy equation. On Tuesday, Google announced on their blog that they made the source code for a Chrome extension available that allows for simple end-to-end Gmail encryption, and added an additional section in the Google Transparency report that helps users understand how encryption works with their emails. Reddit is providing free advertising to promote the downloading of free privacy tools and encouraging it’s users to use encryption. Mozilla is promoting users to download privacy plugins, and SendGrid has stated there will be a major announcement today in their support of the Reset the Net campaign.

Digital Marketing and Internet Privacy

Privacy on the internet will continue to be a hot topic in the coming years as additional documents are released that detail the collection and distribution of private information by governing and corporate entities. Clearly, privacy needs to be embraced by the internet community as a whole, but what will this mean for online marketing and the collection of analytical data? One of the plugins that Mozilla is promoting today is AdBlockPlus, which completely filters out instream YouTube advertisements and display advertising around the web. It will be increasingly important to collect non-invasive analytical data about user movements on your website, and to structure websites in a way that will promote quality and quantity of information in order to use that data to make your website or service more comprehensive.