[whois-tf2-report-comments] Comments on WHOIS Report by ICANN
I believe that it is a good idea to limit access to sensitive data about websites and website owners in the WHOIS database. The information available should be limitted to such information as technical contact information. The sensitive information that should be restricted or even not included in the WHOIS database would be such information about website owners such as their telephone numbers, names, postal addresses, and telephone numbers. While the ICANN's report might list advantages to disclosing sensitive information in the WHOIS database, I believe that disadvantages associated with revealing such information should be disclosed in the ICANN/WHOIS report as well, such as facilitating spamming, criminal acts against the website owners, or political repression. Many NGO's that operate in repressive countries that repress freedom of expression and other human rights might prefer not to have sensitive information about them listed. If such sensitive information is listed, it would be good if the ICANN limitted access to such information. It would also be good if ICANN had a policy of warning web site owners or operators if someone accessed or attempted to access such data. It would also be good if ICANN did not have a policy of penalizing website owners/operators for providing false names or addresses for many of the reasons specified previously in this e-mail. |