[At-Large] [NA-Discuss] Community Input Requested on Two Draft Statements from ALAC to the ICANN Board

Mon Apr 7 15:14:14 EDT 2008

Robert and all,

  Nicely stated, and I could not agree more!  Well done!

-----Original Message-----
>From: Robert Guerra <lists at privaterra.info>
>Sent: Apr 7, 2008 10:58 AM
>To: ALAC Worldwide <alac at atlarge-lists.icann.org>
>Subject: Re: [At-Large] [NA-Discuss] Community Input Requested on Two Draft	Statements from ALAC to the ICANN Board
>
>I would agree with our European colleagues, that being that the  
>default should be consistent with the high level of privacy mandated  
>at the EU and Canadian level.
>
>WHOIS information  should should not be seen as a data mine, to be  
>used by spammers, law enforcement and the Intellectual property  
>constituency. It is a key database, one that should .. that must.. be  
>adequately protected against abuse .
>
>regards
>
>Robert
>
>On 7-Apr-08, at 12:45 PM, Blogs.pn wrote:
>
>> I say leave privacy as an option for each individual user and  
>> enforce the
>> accuracy of the information either way.
>>
>> Chris McElroy
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Derek Smythe" <derek at aa419.>
>> To: "Wendy Seltzer" <wendy at s org eltzer.com>
>> Cc: <alac at atlarge-lists.icann.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2008 6:29 PM
>> Subject: Re: [At-Large] [NA-Discuss] Community Input Requested on  
>> Two Draft
>> Statements from ALAC to the ICANN Board
>>
>>
>>>  Wendy Seltzer wrote:
>>>
>>>> Trade WHOIS accuracy for WHOIS privacy. When inaccuracy is the way  
>>>> to
>>>> preserve privacy, it's better than forced accuracy.
>>> ...
>>> ...
>>>>
>>>>    * WHOIS Accuracy and Reporting. We all know that WHOIS is very
>>>> inaccurate. This is a very serious problem and considerable effort  
>>>> needs
>>>> to be made to improve this situation. Multiplying the number of  
>>>> gTLDs as
>>>> is proposed when the existing database is inaccurate is just  
>>>> asking to
>>>> make a big problem worse – and the existing reporting system is  
>>>> already
>>>> not fit for purpose. ICANN is not living up to its obligations with
>>>> respect to WHOIS – fixing this should be a headline compliance  
>>>> activity
>>>> in the Operational Plan for 2008/2009. Whilst we are limiting our
>>>> comments here to compliance activities related to the operational
>>>> planning cycle, this should not be understood to mean that our  
>>>> concerns
>>>> related to WHOIS are limited to data accuracy. Our previous  
>>>> statements
>>>> on the policy aspects of WHOIS remain valid.
>>>>
>>> Wendy
>>>
>>> I respectfully disagree. Whois accuracy severely impacts end users in
>>> enforcing their legal rights and hampers effective .
>>>
>>> I am also sticking my neck out here, but not all inaccurate whois is
>>> submitted in an attempt at pure privacy. Many domains that are abused
>>> to spam, scam and phish etc end users, have fake whois. This is by
>>> design. This issue is also briefly mentioned in ICANN advisory  
>>> dated 3
>>> April 2003, http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-03apr03.htm ,
>>> which is sadly hardly ever enforced.
>>>
>>> I have a lot of evidence of how existing WHOIS privacy mechanisms are
>>> being abused to simply prolong a fraudulent domain's existence
>>> endangering more clueless end users. Under the privacy protection we
>>> find more fake whois details fort many domains. WHOIS privacy is a
>>> very sharp two sided sword.
>>>
>>> As an example of why we need whois details currently: Right now a big
>>> corporate is giving away free domains. At AA419.org we noticed a
>>> disproportionate large number of registrants from small towns across
>>> America shown in domains spoofing banks, government agencies and  
>>> other
>>> businesses. We contacted numerous of these registrants who in turn  
>>> had
>>> no knowledge of these domains; 4X year old teachers, estate agents
>>> etc. We have contacted the big corporate and registrar in an attempt
>>> to address this issue. The domains are "disabled" in the corporate's
>>> system. However the result of the ID theft is clearly visible in  
>>> WHOIS
>>> without the victims' permission. Without verifiable whois this  
>>> problem
>>> would have been denied (as was originally attempted) and the problem
>>> invisible. This situation is still ongoing. I am talking far in  
>>> excess
>>> of a thousand domains in a year! Yet this is just the tip of the
>>> iceberg ...
>>>
>>> To really represent end users, current issues and procedures should  
>>> be
>>> fixed first. If not, the problem is merely disguised and we would all
>>> be worse off at the end of the day. It is a sad fact that much more
>>> money is lost due to internet fraud and abuse than merely WHOIS being
>>> visible.
>>>
>>> Long term I would love general WHOIS privacy, however not at the  
>>> price
>>> of partially disarming those currently doing what they do to make the
>>> Internet a safer place - it is not only LEA's I am referring to,
>>> though they would have the same problem.
>>>
>>> Personally I have numerous domains with whois protection, but my  
>>> whois
>>> details are 100% correct for those domains and I am using an  
>>> available
>>> acknowledged privacy mechanism. I accept responsibility for them.
>>> These mechanisms are available to other users as well, if privacy  
>>> is a
>>> concern to them - with the exception of the initially much abused .us
>>> TLD. However nobody is forced to use a .us domain. We do have  
>>> choices.
>>>
>>> In a nutshell, there is also a reason why whois is sometimes not
>>> accurate on many domains: To evade responsibility illegal activities.
>>> How do you protect against that?
>>>
>>> To fix, we have to fully understand the implications of each action.
>>> Sadly not all internet registrants are as honorable as we would wish.
>>> Whatever WHOIS system emerges has to acknowledge this fact.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>>
>>> Derek Smythe
>>> http://www.aa419.org
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> ALAC mailing list
>>> ALAC at atlarge-lists.icann.org
>>> http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/alac_atlarge-lists.icann.org
>>>
>>> At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org
>>
>>
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>
>
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