<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">All:<BR>
After many months of work, WHOIS Task Force 2 has finally issued a lengthy report on the WHOIS system, national privacy laws, and some proposed changes to the WHOIS system. I am pleased to say that the report spends considerable time on the NCUC issues of: <BR>
- that WHOIS data often contains personal data of individuals/ sensitive data of organization (e.g., human rights groups)<BR>
- WHOIS data is often misused/abused <BR>
- National law and public policy throughout the world protect individuals and even organizations from having to publish name/address/phone/email in public directories.<BR>
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The new idea introduced in the report is a change of the WHOIS system. The report proposes a "Tiered Access System" in which the public would have access to almost no personal/sensitive data (perhaps only technical contact or name/country of registrant), and then at a second tier (where we record the requester and their reason) perhaps have some access to a bit more data to contact the domain name holder (perhaps name/email or address) and a third tier where registries and registrars still have access to all the data for technical purposes (e.g., transfering domain names).<BR>
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After consultation with other WHOIS TF members, here is the "vote" I entered on this draft report: <BR>
===> "The Noncommercial Users' Constituency approves the preliminary TF2 report and supports its publication in full to the public for comment. We note the <BR>
following concerns and reservations regarding Section 3.5 and throughout the <BR>
report, to be recorded with our vote:"<BR>
===> "The Noncommercial Users' Constituency approves of the concept of a Tiered <BR>
Access With Balance, in which the rights of the data subjects (domain name <BR>
holders) are clearly balanced with the rights of the data recipients (e.g., <BR>
intellectual property owners). In doing so, we submit that there must be a clear <BR>
distinction of sensitive and non-sensitive data, that domain name holders must <BR>
receive immediate notification when data is released (in most cases), and that <BR>
the system must avoid any White List (unlimited access to certain parties merely <BR>
because they are known users)." <BR>
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Regards,<BR>
Kathy (Kleiman -- WHOIS Task Force 2 member).<BR>
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