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ICANN Taskforces Produce Preliminary Reports on WHOIS - Public Comment Period is NOW

  • Take action to protect Internet Privacy
  • Submit Comments to ICANN's WHOIS Task Forces Before July 5th (addresses below)
  • Details follow, including specific points for comment
Last year the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) established three Task Forces to develop policy for the WHOIS database.   The Task Forces Preliminary Reports have just been released to the public.  ICANN now requests public comments on each of these three reports, which focus on access, data, and accuracy, respectively.  The comment period lasts only until July 5, 2004

We strongly encourage members of the general public and non-commercial communities, etc. to submit comments on each Report. The outcome of the WHOIS Policy Development Process will have a significant impact on privacy, civil liberties, and freedom of expression for Internet users.Ê The WHOIS database broadly exposes domain registrants' personal data to a global audience, including criminals and spammers. Civil society groups have urged ICANN to limit the use and scope of the WHOIS database to its original purpose, which is the resolution of technical network issues, and to establish strong privacy protections based on internationally accepted privacy standards.  This would mean restricting access to the data, minimizing data required, and not penalizing registrants for protecting their personal information by entering an inaccurate home address or telephone number.

Below we have listed for each of the three Task Forces links to the Preliminary Report and its comment submission page, as well as the position taken by the Non-Commercial Users Constituency and a list of suggested comments.  For Task Force 3: Accuracy, the NCUC takes the position that the Task Force should strike the Best Practices section that is currently included in the document.  Instead, the NCUC would prefer to work from the alternative Best Practices section submitted by the Registrar Constituency and will work to use it as a replacement.  For this reason, the alternative document is included below so that comments may focus on improving that document instead.

Task Force 1: Access

Task Force 2: Data

Task Force 3: Accuracy*

Non-Commercial Users Constituency web site »

ICANN WHOIS issues page»

June 2004

 
 

 
 
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