Re: [ga] scammers using whois privacy
kidsearch wrote: I don't have a problem with the dmv concept as long as the average user can access the information. Yes one record at a time is sufficient.
The name (and contact information) of the person making the request would be conveyed to the data subjects (i.e. the person[s] named in the whois record]. It is only fair that when someone asks about you that you should know who is asking. But the name of the data requester would be made visible to the public only via periodic reports that count who made how many inquiries, and anyone who made more than a threshold number of inquiries across all of whois would be listed. Thus, if you only asked about a few names your name would not appear in the periodic report, but if you asked about lots and lots of names, then you would appear. This *is* subject to gaming - large law firms for example, might spread their inquiries across a large number of associates, paralegals, and clerical staff rather than identifying the principals who are really asking. That period report would also try to aggregate the reasons in some way - so that people who use whois to make large numbers of trademark accusations could be identified. I don't see any problem with the slight imbalance. The people listed in whois had to chose between being in whois or not using the internet. The people who are making the inquiry have a choice - they can go through the system I propose and be listed in the periodic report if they do whois mining, or they can use standard legal processes, get a subpoena to access the records, without the public ever really knowing. --karl--
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