[NCUC-DISCUSS] [NCUC-EC] Draft comments on Misuse of Whois Study - timely

Tue Jan 21 02:23:39 CET 2014

I'm sorry, I saw this only after the deadline had elapsed.  But I had a quick skim through the report, which seems to be well-prepared with a sound methodology (esp. the experimental study, which I wish could have continued beyond the 6-month period).

Kathy, thank you very much for the statement, which I support.  I'm not sure why the US and its First Amendment were separately called out: was there a specific incident that this paragraph was in reference to?  In any case, that's a minor quibble.

William Drake <wjdrake at gmail.com> [2014-01-18 14:57:06 +0100]:
> Hi Folks
> 
> As Kathy has indicated, the timeline on this is rather short, 11:59pm UTC today, and she’s asking that it be approved as a NCUC statement in the (probably likely) event it can’t be at the NCSG level in time.  The challenge here is that, per previous, we have not for some time had the NCUC policy committee called for in our dated bylaws to approve constituency-level statements. So the way we’ve done such things in recent years is pretty much rough consensus after hearing from as many folks as possible in the time frame—certainly elected (EC) or appointed (NCSG PC) representatives, and regular members as well.  Admittedly, this is not quite a satisfactory approach given that NCUC is now much bigger and more diverse when that model set it, but in lieu of a formal PC a broader and virtual PC is what we have to work with at the moment.
> 
> So, it’d be really helpful if we could hear back either way from whoever’s online and can get their head around this in the next few hours.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Bill
> 
> 
> On Jan 16, 2014, at 11:52 PM, Kathy Kleiman <Kathy at kathykleiman.com> wrote:
> 
> > Hi All,
> > I need your help. There is an amazing study done by two researchers (a PhD and an almost-PhD) at Carnegie Melon University.  They tested the hypothesis of whether "public access to WHOIS data leads to a measurable degree of misuse of certain kinds of gTLD domain name Registrant identity and contact information."  They did both a descriptive study (surveys of law enforcement and privacy people, registrants and registrars) and an experimental study (registering domain names with no other traceable source and seeing how much spam, and unsolicited phone calls and emails they received).  
> > 
> > They found what we have been telling ICANN for years: "there is a statistically significant occurrence of WHOIS misue affecting Registrants' email addresses, postal addresses, and phone numbers, published in Whois." 
> > 
> > Great and let's tell them so! I've drafted some comments that not only support the findings (and review the great effort dedicated to the study), but also draw on abuse cases we have discussed and shared from the NCUC over many years, including political persecution, chilling effects, anti-competitive activity, and stalking.
> > 
> > Since these are Reply Comments, it is traditional to not only share your own views, but comment on those of others.  Our views are, in many way, close to those of ALAC on this issue. ALAC's comments note that the Study's results "align with individual experience of At-Large constituents" and also research ALAC has done.  So the noncommercial and individual registrant groups are aligned on this issue - and that is key.
> > 
> > Below and attached please find the draft comments. Please feel free to send me edits with Track Changes (if you use the attached file). To avoid a flood on the list, feel free to share small edits with me privately.  Big edits and changes are probably up for discussion.  DEADLINE: SATURDAY (but I am judging my son's debate team, so tomorrow if possible).
> > 
> > Best and tx,
> > Kathy
> > 
> > [DRAFT] Comments of the Noncommercial Users Constituency of ICANN
> > Study on Whois Misuse
> > Due: January 18, 2014
> >  
> > The Noncommercial Users Constituency of ICANN submits this document in response to the call for public comments on the Study on Whois Misuse posted on the ICANN website. We respectfully submit that this Study is a very important one for ICANN and for the GNSO policy work ahead.
> > 
> > We note that the study seems thorough and professionally done. Its named researchers were Dr. Nicolas Christin and Nektarios Leontiadis. Dr. Christin received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Virginia, and is an Assistant Research Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.  Nektarios Leontiadis is a PhD candidate at Carnegie Mellon University, in the department of Engineering and Public Policy, with research focused on the economic modeling of online crime. Both are affiliated with CMU’s CyLab security lab.
> > 
> > This study stayed close and tight to the Terms of Reference set out for it --  terms set and designed by members of the GNSO and approved by the GNSO Council.
> > 
> > The key question of the study was: Does public access to WHOIS-published data lead to a measurable degree of misuse?  The answer was an unequivocal yes:
> > 
> > The main finding of the descriptive study is that there is a statistically significant occurrence of WHOIS misuse affecting Registrants’ email addresses, postal addresses, and phone numbers, published in WHOIS when registering domains in these gTLDs.  Overall, we find that 44% of Registrants experience one or more of these types of WHOIS misuse.  [Emphasis added, WHOIS Misuse Study, p. 6]
> > 
> > We appreciate the extensive efforts the CMU team undertook to test the hypothesis it was given by ICANN and the GNSO.  First, it conducted a descriptive study reaching out to Experts, Registrants and Registries/Registrars. Specifically, the team surveyed a “diverse group of experts in the fields of security and privacy affiliated with research institutes, academia, law enforcement agencies, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and national data protection commissioners.” [Study, p. 13]
> > 
> > The team surveyed Registrants for a “better understanding of their direct experiences with Whois misuse” and found that 43.9% reported “some kind of misuse of their WHOIS information,” including postal address misuse, email address misuse andphone number misuse tied to the Whois data, as well as Identity theft, unauthorized intrusion to servers and blackmail  to which publicly-published Whois data may have been a contributing factor. 
> > 
> > Then the team surveyed Registrars and Registries about Whois harvesting attacks, and the deployment and effectiveness of WHOIS anti-harvesting techniques.
> > 
> > Second and perhaps most interestingly, the CMU team conducted its own experimental study in which they registered a set of domain names in the top five gTLDs through a representative set of Registrars, with unique Registrant identities. Over the course of six months, they tracked emails, voicemails and postal mail received by the registrants of these experimental domain names. The purpose of the study was to eliminate “any extraneous variables,” e.g. the publication of a postal address in both the Whois and an outside directory.
> > 
> > The conclusions of the study are Striking – and answer questions floating in the GNSO for over a decade.  Yes, there is abuse of publicly-published Whois data. Yes, that abuse is statistically significant. We share again the main finding of the Study for additional review in this comment period:
> > 
> > The main finding of the descriptive study is that there is a statistically significant occurrence of WHOIS misuse affecting Registrants’ email addresses, postal addresses, and phone numbers, published in WHOIS when registering domains in these gTLDs.  Overall, we find that 44% of Registrants experience one or more of these types of WHOIS misuse.  [Emphasis added, WHOIS Misuse Study, p. 6]
> > 
> > We thank CMU for the extensive efforts it devoted to this study, and the extra efforts made and extra time spent to expand studies to include more experts from Latin America and overall go above and beyond the requirements for a  rounded and complete study.
> > 
> > Reply to Other Commenters:
> > 
> > ALAC Comments: 
> > ALAC published the following comment in their comments: “We note the study has returned findings that align with individual experience of At-Large constituents plus the evidence of widespread occurrence has validated similar research undertaken by At-Large connected researchers.”
> >  
> > We note that NCUC, too, has directly experienced deeply concerning misuses of WHOIS data. In particular, attorneys in NCUC have directly experienced and directly worked with clients who have experienced:
> > 
> > -          Stalking, for which the Whois was the only published source for the location of an online, home-based business by which an ex-spouse found his wife and stalked her.
> > -          Political persecution, by which Whois data was used not only to track dissenters (some located in the US and protected by the First Amendment), but also their families located in the countries about whose corruption the websites were devoted (and who were not similarly protected);
> > -          Chilling effects, by which Whois data was used to track down and intimidate or silence those who have a different political, religious or moral view;
> > -          Anticompetitive activity – by which competitors used Whois data to track down entrepreneurs and small businesses owners and seek to intimidate them to set businesses plans and services aside.  
> > 
> > We further share with ALAC the deep concern that “WHOIS misuse is factual and widespread, as the evidence from 44% of sampled registrants across the several domains attest.”  We further agree that this  poses a “continued threat” to the “security and confidence in the use of the Internet, [and] the public interest demands measures to address and abate its impact.”  ALAC Comments, http://forum.icann.org/lists/comments-whois-misuse-27nov13/msg00006.html
> > 
> > We have the evidence, and measures must now be taken to protect Registrants, and the speech, work, expression, hobbies, research, business, education and communication they conduct using their domain names.
> > 
> > Respectfully submitted,
> > 
> > [if approved]
> > 
> > NONCOMMERCIAL USERS CONSTITUENCY
> > 
> >   <NCUC DRAFT Comments - Misuse of Whois Study.docx>_______________________________________________
> > Ncuc-discuss mailing list
> > Ncuc-discuss at lists.ncuc.org
> > http://lists.ncuc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ncuc-discuss
> 
> ***********************************************
> William J. Drake
> International Fellow & Lecturer
>   Media Change & Innovation Division, IPMZ
>   University of Zurich, Switzerland
> Chair, Noncommercial Users Constituency, 
>   ICANN, www.ncuc.org
> william.drake at uzh.ch (direct), wjdrake at gmail.com (lists),
>   www.williamdrake.org
> ***********************************************
> 

-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Policy Director, Centre for Internet and Society
T: +91 80 40926283 | W: http://cis-india.org
-------------------
Access to Knowledge Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School
M: +1 520 314 7147 | W: http://yaleisp.org
PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: https://twitter.com/pranesh_prakash
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