Proposed public comment on .CAT WHOIS Proposed Changes

[Wendy Seltzer]

As we discussed on the NCSG call Wednesday, we had begun drafting a
statement for the punctCAT public comment. On the call, we heard support
for finalizing that statement and sending it in, despite being shortly
past the comment period's closing.  Below, the statement for your review
and approval. Thanks to Avri for coordinating a draft from which this draws:

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The NCSG wishes to express its support for punctCAT's proposed amendment
to allow natural persons an opt-out measure by which some WHOIS data
would be withheld from public view.

At the same time, we do not believe the request offers the opt-out
opportunity broadly enough to satisfy all legitimate privacy needs. The
NCSG believes there are several types of institution that require
similar opportunities to opt out from public display of their identity
and address details.  Among those institutional types are organizations
that:

 * protect natural persons
 * deal with political freedoms,
 * deal with religious freedoms,
 * deal with sexual preference and expression,
 * deal with political minorities,
 * deal with religious minorities,
and parents' groups that deal with children's activities such as sports
teams, home-schooling and other childcare issues.

As the privacy of natural persons is protected within the EU Data
Protection Directive, political parties and minority speech are
protected within the privacy rules in other national laws. Given that
gTLDs are global, it will be important to take all national laws
into account.

The NCSG further expresses concern that law enforcement and third party
access to the data should be consistent with due process protections. We
urge development of these disclosure procedures in conjunction with the
Community.