Law students proposed new solutions to Internet problems, from those as common as a forgotten password to ones as high-profile as human rights activism and free speech, in “Four Ideas for a Better Internet,” held Tuesday night at Stanford.

Co-sponsored by Stanford Center for Internet and Society and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard, the event featured four TED-style talks on cybersecurity, diplomatic transparency, crowdsourcing and privacy and reputation. Four student groups from a collaborative three-week seminar between Harvard Law and Stanford Law attempted to address difficult problems in cyberspace while a panel of special guests in the field weighed in.

“Think what you have stored online, every picture you take, every friend you’ve ever had…but for others, the stakes are even higher,” said Zac Cox J.D. ’11, who participated in a group proposing an online security council of friends.

Currently, the solution to security involves either a door with a bunch of locks or a big wall, Cox said. Often, however, these “locks,” or security questions, can be answered with a quick scan of the target’s public Facebook.

Instead of allowing social graphs to compromise privacy, the group drew off Section IV of the 25th Amendment, which allows the vice president to override the president, in proposing a structure “where your friends have your back,” he said. The idea relies on a friend-based social cabinet capable of stepping in to preserve the online identity of a friend in danger of compromise.

Under this proposal, appointed trustees would monitor suspicious activity on a user’s account.

The proposed model could solve problems as trivial as requesting a password change to problems as life-threatening as disclosing a captured human rights activists’ valuable online accounts, said Harvard student Heather Casteel, a member of the same group.

“There haven’t been many ways for people to take privacy into their own hands other than changing privacy settings,” said communication major Crystal Nwaneri ’13. “By going to friends to develop a social cabinet, they’re giving people a chance to make sure there’s others looking out for the online presence that we’re slowly developing.”

Another group attempted to address preserving anonymity in a human rights context with an organization that would enable, protect and promote human-rights media. Although video has unparalleled ability to create progress in human rights, its capacity is limited by the ability to safely and securely upload said videos, said panelist Eric Fletcher of Harvard.

While many videos of human rights injustices have gone viral on mediums such as YouTube, the group argued that the Internet lacks a non-hierarchical organization resistant to pressure.

Their platform would be a non-profit immune to pressure and capable of maintaining source anonymity. The organization would receive videos and either publish them independently or contact an affiliate media group.

Correction: In an earlier version of this story, The Daily incorrectly identified Zac Cox as a Harvard law student. Cox attends Stanford Law School. The Daily also incorrectly attributed a remark from the human-rights panel to Camille Fletcher. The remark should have been attributed to Eric Fletcher.