A number of the largest websites in the world have planned a coordinated action to oppose mass surveillance on the Internet. The list of websites includes such giants as Reddit, Imgur and BoingBoing – all of them will be taking part in the campaign dubbed “Reset the Net” in some way.

Some of them are going to show a splash screen to all users, like the one used in the successful protests against SOPA – the copyright bill in the United States which many feared would damage the worldwide web. However, instead of telling Internet users to apply to their electoral representatives, the protest in question will push more direct action – in particular, encourage users to install various privacy and encryption tools.

Other services have committed to improving their own privacy within the frames of the campaign, by enabling such standards as HTTPS. These can prevent attackers from eavesdropping on Internet users who visit their websites. Actually, security standards of this kind are common in the world of ecommerce, but much rarer for websites which don’t position themselves as storing sensitive data.

Reddit’s General Manager explained that they can take back control of their personal and private data one website, one device, one user at a time, and the company is therefore proud to protect its users’ rights and help Reset the Net campaign. The latter is being coordinated by Fight for the Future. Its co-founder claimed that now that they know how massive surveillance works, they also know how to stop it. This is the reason for people around the globe to cooperate to use encryption everywhere and make it harder for the governments to spy on everyone.