[WHOIS-WG] [At-Large] Fwd: WHOIS Policy Review Team Final Report

[Patrick Vande Walle]

On 16/05/12 23:01, Alan Greenberg wrote:
> Some gTLD registries requested that their contracts be modified to 
> allow them to hide information about natural persons (ie people and 
> not companies) along with provisions to disclose such information to 
> those with a genuine need to know.
>
> These requests were duly approved.
>
> I would be greatly surprised if similar requests from other 
> registries would be turned down.


The GNSO resolution from 2005 reads: "... a registrar or registry can
credibly demonstrate that it is legally prevented by local/national
privacy laws or regulations from fully complying with applicable
provisions of its ICANN contract regarding the collection, display and
distribution of personal data via the gTLD WHOIS service"

The goal is to allow exceptions to the general rule. A registry has to
demonstrate that it needs to limit the WHOIS data that is displayed, or
else it will be be taken to court or fined. AFAIK, only three registries
benefit form this exception: .name.tel and .cat. , all located on the
EU.Obviously, the upcoming new gTLDs located in the EU will request the
same exception.


> If there are those in At-Large who feel that all gTLD registries 
> should be compelled to follow such a methodology, the ALAC has the 
> ability to initiate the investigation of such a policy development process.
>
> Perhaps it is time to stop talking and to do some work.

I am afraid you won't find the support of a majority within At-Large,
ALAC and ICANN in general,  to support the initiation of such a PDP.  
It is only when ICANN and the registries will forced by law to respect
the privacy of individuals that they will eventually comply. There is
hope. The new EU regulations on data protection, will also force
companies in third countries to comply. The stated targets are social
networks like Facebook and Google,  but it can as well be applicable to
Verisign or Neustar. 

Hence, rather than spending too much energy inside ICANN to try to fix
an 14 year old  problem no-one wants to fix anyway, we could as well
lobby our lawmakers and ask them to fix ICANN rules.

Patrick
<http://gnso.icann.org/resolutions/>