[whois-sc] The NCUC Top Five

["Milton Mueller" <mueller@xxxxxxx>]

No, it isn't our five favorite CDs to share online, it's the Whois 

Questions 1, 3, 5, 13, 18

NCUC wants to focus on data collection. Collection is most important to ordinary noncommercial and individual users. Issues of how the data are accessed or used are secondary, because if sensitive data is not there, data access won't do any harm. 

Collection related questions:
Question #1. Should the elements of data that registrars are required to collect at the time of registration of a domain name be revised? (See Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) § 3.2.) 

Question #3 Should all registrants, or certain classes of registrants (see Issue 18 below), be afforded the option of not providing some or all elements that registrars are required to collect and, if so, which elements? 

Question #18 Should certain types of registrants (e.g., those using domains for political and similar activities) be exempt from the usual requirements to provide data, or to have it available in Whois? How should the eligibility of particular registrants for these exemptions be determined? Are measures required to address the possibility of abuses in the classification procedure? 

Access and usage-related questions:

Question #5 Are the current requirements that registrars make disclosures to, and obtain consent by, registrants concerning the uses of collected data adequate and appropriate? (See RAA §§ 3.7.7.4 to 3.7.7.6.)
Our suggested answer: No, they are inadequate, Use of private whois data should be disclosed. 

Question #13. Should access to data be differentiated based on the party receiving access, or based on the use to which the data will be put? If so, how should differentiated access be implemented and how should the cost of differentiation be funded?