[whois-sc] Proposed terms of reference for our call tomorrow

[Steve Metalitz <metalitz@xxxxxxxx>]

Here is a suggested revision of the terms of reference for the data mining
task force as circulated by Bruce just before our previous call.  As I
mentioned then, I found the use of the term "bulk access" in that draft
somewhat confusing.  This revision does not propose a lot of substantive
changes but tries to use some of the terminology in a manner more consistent
with our past usage.  I would be glad to send or post a redline version if
anyone is interested in seeing just what changes I am suggesting.  

Steve Metalitz

Title: Restricting  access to WHOIS data for marketing purposes

Participants:
- 1 representative from each constituency
- ALAC liaison
- GAC liaison
- ccNSO liaison
- SECSAC liaison
- liaisons from other GNSO WHOIS task forces

Description of Task Force:
==========================

In the recent policy recommendations relating to WHOIS:
(see http://www.icann.org/gnso/whois-tf/report-19feb03.htm)
it was decided that the use of bulk access WHOIS data for marketing
should not be permitted.  However, these recommendations did not directly
address the issue of marketing uses of Whois data obtained through either of
the other contractually required means of access:  Port 43 and web-based.
Bulk access under license may be only a minor contributor to the perceived
problem of use of Whois data for marketing purposes. A subset of a
registrar's Whois database that is sufficiently large for data mining
purposes may be obtained through other means, such as a combination of using
free zonefile access (via signing a registry zonefile access agreement - the
number of these in existence approaches
1000 per major registry) to obtain a list of domains, and then using
anonymous (public) access to either port-43 or interactive web pages to
retrieve large volumes of contact information.
Once the information is initially obtained it can be kept up-to-date by
detecting changes in the zonefile, and only retrieving information
related to the changed records.   This process is often described as
"data mining".  The net effect is that large numbers of Whois records are 
easily available for marketing purposes, and generally on an anonymous basis
(the
holders of this information are unknown).

The purpose of this task force is to determine what contractual changes
(if any) are required to allow registrars to protect domain name holder
data from data mining for the purposes of marketing  The focus is on the
technological means that may be applied to achieve these objectives and
whether any contractual changes are needed to accommodate them.  

In-scope
========
The purpose of this section to clarify the issues should be considered
in proposing any policy changes.

The task force must ensure that groups such as law enforcement,
intellectual property, internet service providers, and consumers can
continue to retrieve information necessary to perform their functions.
In some cases this may require the provision of searching facilities
(e.g that can return more than one record in response to a query) as
well as look-up facilities (that only provide one record in response to
a query).

The task force must ensure that any access restrictions do not restrict
the competitive provision of value-added services using WHOIS information
(for
example, services that are provided competitively for the purpose of
intellectual property protection), nor restrict the transfer of domain name
records between
registrars.


Out-of-scope
============
To ensure that the task force remains narrowly focussed to ensure that
its goal is reasonably achievable and within a reasonable time frame, it
is necessary to be clear on what is not in scope for the task force.

The task force should not aim to specify a technical solution.  This is
the role of registries and registrars in a competitive market, and the
role of technical standardisation bodies such as the IETF.  Note the
IETF presently has a working group called CRISP to develop an improved
protocol that should be capable of implementing the policy outcomes of
this task force. However, the task force should seek to achieve an
understanding of the various technological means that could be applied to
prevent or inhibit data mining with an eye toward evaluating their impact on
other uses and their compatibility with the currently applicable contracts.


The task force should not review the current bulk access agreement
Provisions, except to the extent that these can be improved to enhance
protection against marketing uses and to facilitate other uses.   These were
the subject of a recent update in policy in March
2003.

The task force should not study the amount of data available for public
(anonymous) access for single queries.  Any changes to the data
collected or made available will be the subject of a separate policy
development process.

Tasks/Milestones
================

- collect requirements (e.g., volume, frequency, format of query results)
from non-marketing users of contact information
(this could be extracted from the Montreal workshop and also by GNSO
constituencies, and should also include accessibility requirements (e.g
based on W3C standards)
[milestone  1 date]
- review general approaches to prevent automated electronic data mining
and ensure that the requirements for access are met (including
accessibility requirements for those that may for example be visually
impaired)
[milestone 2 date]
- determine whether any changes are required in the contracts to allow
the approaches to be used above   (for example the contracts require the
use of the port-43 WHOIS protocol and this may not support approaches to
prevent data mining)
[milestone 3 date]

Each milestone should be subject to development internally by the task
force, along with a public comment process to ensure that as much input
as possible is taken into account.