[ncdnhc-discuss] WHOIS Task Force; personal privacy issues

[KathrynKL at aol.com]

To the NCC:
The comment period for the WHOIS Task Force's November 2002 Report ended 
yesterday.  I think there are some critical issues in the WHOIS work, so I 
would like to share my comments with you.  These are comments I wrote and 
posted as an individual.  

If others in the NCC posted comments, could you share them too? 
Link to WHOIS report text and archives at: http://www.dnso.org/ under Daily 
News.

The subject line of my posting was "Real lives at risk; personal privacy 
needs immediate attention."  Regards, Kathy Kleiman (text below)

My Comments:
-----------------------
I write these comments as an individual, small business owner, and political 
speaker.  Clearly the Task Force has worked hard to define the issues, and to 
show where more work has been called for by participants and needs to be 
done.  Thus, it 
comes as a surprise, with all the open questions that the Task Force 
identifies, that you call for moving forward with "accuracy" of registrant 
data. 

In these comments I address: 
- the open issue of personal privacy 
- the need for personal privacy to be more clearly presented and protected 
 in the next version of this report. 
- the need for express recognition that some inaccuracies in the WHOIS 
 data protect privacy without limiting access to the domain name 
 registrants for legitimate purposes. 
- the Task Force should recommend a much more limited initial testbed for 
 WHOIS. 


I.   The Open Issue of Personal Privacy 
While the concern for individual privacy is tabled as an issue for further 
discussion, the Task Force urges ICANN to go forward with a set of new, 
uniform provisions for enforcement of accuracy in the WHOIS database. 

It is incumbent on this Task Force to use its report to more explicitly 
discuss the deep concerns political speakers and individuals face when their 
full data, including address and telephone are published to the world in the 
instantaneous availability of the WHOIS database. The discomfort of 
hitting delete to erase an unsolicited email does not rise to the same level 
as 
the discomfort of having an important political/human rights message to 
share and having to disclose the location of your children when registering 
the necessary domain name. 

The Task Force has heard from Andrews and Davidson, among others, 
about the need to treat different registrants differently.  It has heard from 
Younger and Chheda, among others, about the need to allow individuals to 
post limited information to the WHOIS database (with the rest being held 
by the registrar). 

After my presentation to the Task Force in Shanghai, about the need for 
protection of the personal privacy of individuals and political speakers, I 
was surrounded by people who agreed. Many sponsored by the Markle 
Foundation, they represented human rights groups and media which covers 
human rights activity.  They talked of the dangers that political speakers 
and human rights activists face every day for activity under their domain 
names.  They told me of: 
         - a site to post the pictures of government torture victims so 
         that their families could identify their faces and claim their 
         bodies; 
         -          a site which published detailed accounts of the 
activities of a 
         corrupt national government, and was a major source of 
         information to the country's residents, unable to receive 
         information from the state-controlled media. 
         -          I added the concern of individuals who use their domain 
         names and websites to post information about their 
         noncommercial activities, from sewing to parenting to 
         touring, and fear making public their domestic information 
         to ex-spouses, stalkers, and disgruntled fellow employees.   
     
We are talking about real issues of personal privacy, real dangers, and real 
lives.   


         II.       Personal privacy must be more clearly presented and 
protected in 
         the next Task Force Report. 

It is not enough to say (or think) that people who need personal privacy can 
solve it by registering their domain name through another party.  There are 
basic reasons.  First and foremost, many who engage in the political and 
human rights Internet work do not choose to share their danger with others. 
They are driven by their own convictions to take on dangerous lives and 
work, but they do not want to endanger others.  The domain name needs to 
be under their name. 

Second, the time exigencies of UDRP challenges (and perhaps the whois 
accuracy challenges to come) mean that many domain name registrants 
want to be able receive and address challenges as quickly as possible   not 
through surrogates.  Days count. 

But I am not saying anything the Task Force has not heard before   more 
passionately and persuasively presented than I can.  Accordingly, it is 
incumbent on the Task Force to address the issue head on.  The Task Force 
should recommend that ICANN move more carefully through the thicket of 
personal privacy -- and recommend that ICANN mandate personal privacy 
protection at the same time as mandating accuracy of WHOIS data for 
individuals and political speakers. 

         III.      Inaccuracy in WHOIS data today serves privacy purposes 
without 
         limiting access to the domain name registrant for legitimate 
         purposes. 

The unrestricted openness of the WHOIS database drives the need for 
inaccurate WHOIS information.  Everyone works hard to enter contact 
information which is accurate   such as email address to receive notice of 
any UDRP challenges, renewal notices, and other registry and registrar 
information.   

But that does not mean that every small piece of data in the WHOIS 
registration needs to be accurate. Unlisted phone numbers should be able 
to remain private   without fear of jeopardizing a well-known human rights 
website.  To do otherwise contradicts common sense and the highest of 
human values. 

    IV.  The Task Force should recommend a much more limited initial 
    Testbed for WHOIS. 

In every other area of ICANN work, we have been urged to go slow and 
move carefully.  The WHOIS database accuracy project should be no 
exception.  The Task Force would be completely within its rights and 
mandate to urge that a testbed and test period be adopted for WHOIS 
accuracy requirements: 

         -          Advise ICANN to work on the clearly commercial gTLD 
         first, and then consider the special issues that apply to 
         individuals and political organizations in other gTLDs later. 

Comments of Kathryn A. Kleiman 
December 8, 2002    
  

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ncuc.org/pipermail/ncuc-discuss/attachments/20021209/e1bbe532/attachment.html>