Updated: Global private cloud claims to restore Internet privacy

Respect Network is asking people to register for what it claims to be the world’s first global network for trusted private data sharing, in its bid to restore privacy on the Internet.

The network – launched yesterday at London City Hall – is a collaboration between more than 70 founding partners worldwide, some of which are in Australia.

Key Australian partners include Katryna Dow, CEO of Meeco, which markets a web-based “life management” platform, and Flamingo Ventures – an organisation founded by Dr Catriona Wallace – that has developed a co-creation and analytics platform.

Other partners across Australia and New Zealand include Crypto Photo, Edentiti, Geddup, MyInfoSafe (NZ), Onexus, Present Group, Secure Value Exchange, WelcomerID, 4th Party, and 1id.

Respect Network CEO Drummond Reed, claimed the network takes a fundamentally different approach to ownership and use of information than existing social networks and cloud providers.

Consumers pay US$25 to purchase a lifetime membership to the cloud service, “safe in the knowledge that their digital rights are back in their control,” Reed said.

“It puts control back in the hands of individuals and not only gives them the choice of how their information is used but compensates them for their value. No longer are people unwittingly the product,” he argued.

The network follows international principles of Privacy by Design, turning the existing centralised social network model upside down, the organisation claimed.

Instead every person or business on the network has their own private cloud from the provider of their choice, and all sharing is over private peer-to-peer connections between members.

This allows people anywhere in the world to share private data as easily as they share public data on Google, Facebook and other cloud providers but with the assurance that their privacy will be respected, the organisation claimed.

Each member gets a lifetime “cloud name”, which will be a fully portable, private digital address for life. “Cloud names will become the symbol of this shift towards privacy and personal control on the Internet,” said Reed.

Respect Network’s is looking to raise US$25 million to grow the network under its ‘First Million Member Campaign’. Of this, US$8 million will be used for a development grant program to create new apps and services for the network.

“It’s a global ‘cloudfunding’ that enables people to invest directly in the future of Internet privacy, and reap the reward of starting to capture the value of their personal data and relationships,” said Reed.

Respect Network is launching in Sydney on July 7.