In the Brazilian slums 10 million people don´t have computers at home and depend on community centers to access the Internet. These centers are public spaces with no privacy, creating a serious matter. i.e. when do you ever access your bank online with people staring at your screen? Privacy is the key to take the best the Internet can offer. Taking that into consideration, Terra, one of Brazil’s largest content portals, realized: What if there were a way to democratize the digital privacy in the slums?

That’s when Terra VIP was born. A project inside the Paraisopolis slums designed to help its 100 thousand residents. We installed new monitor in all community centers of Paraisopolis that works almost magically: those who look at the monitor with bare eyes don’t see anything; those who look at it wearing special goggles see everything, providing the person wearing the special goggles with privacy during their session.

In order to increase coverage, we relied on a strategy focused on both owned and earner media. The project was released on Terra itself, with multiple content spread out through the entire editorial, making the idea well known by those who accessed one of the main Brazilian portals. The proper use of owned media triggered an entire universe of earned media with various news made available to the audience. The idea grew and along with it the number of people talking about Terra’s great social initiative.

Today 100 thousand people from the Paraisopolis’ community can access their online banking, open private emails and visit social networks with complete privacy. And thinking practically, since all the raw material to build the “private monitors” is in the monitors themselves, we have a sustainable and measurable solution. After the success of the project in Paraisopolis, Terra has two next steps for expansion: 1) to increase the coverage of Terra VIP monitors in community centers of other less privileged areas in Brazil 2) to create training programs to teach community leaders how to build their own private monitors, turning the solution into something even more comprehensive and democratic.