As part of their membership, every individual member receives a lifetime "cloud name" that begins with an equals sign, e.g. =your.name. This is 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.
By following international principles of Privacy by Design, the Respect Network turns the existing centralized social network model upside down. Instead, every person or business on the network has their own private cloud from the provider of their choice.
All sharing is over private peer-to-peer connections between members -- there is no middleman.
The Respect Network has been in development for over three years by internet architects and founding partner companies including Neustar, a provider of real-time cloud-based information services and data analytics. Other UK-based founding partners include: Allfiled, Ctrl-Shift, CitizenMe, Digital Animal, miiCard, mydex, MyProfessionalID, Paoga, Social Safe, SmarterComplaints and The Customers' Voice.