Hi John. I need to add, for clarification, that I never suggested "collecting less information about domain registrants". The point of friction between European law and ICANN contracts is the duty to retain data beyond a reasonable period of time after the domain name has expired or transferred, not the ability to collect them. I am not sure that it is of any help to keep personal information of the registrant for years after he/she has lost ownership of the domain, and therefore the ability to do any harm with it. Another point of disagreement that you and I have, assuming neither of us has changed opinion lately, is how public the information sites for personal use should be (the issue related to commercial sites being totally different). However, this is not a matter where there is conflict that needs a waiver, and therefore is not part of this discussion. Cheers, Roberto
-----Messaggio originale----- Da: at-large-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:at-large- bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] Per conto di John R. Levine Inviato: giovedì 17 dicembre 2015 18:45 A: Christian de Larrinaga Cc: At-Large Worldwide Oggetto: Re: [At-Large] I: [ALAC-Announce] ICANN News Alert -- Notice of Preliminary Determination To Grant Registrar Data Retention Waiver Request for Ascio Technologies, Inc. Danmark - filial af Ascio Technologies, Inc. USA
years to focus on what it is supposed to be doing. Yet it is still fixated on imposing terms that are neither legally required in US and in cases even illegal elsewhere.
People with no experience with large networks, which includes pretty much everyone on the ALAC, often seem to believe that collecting less information about domain registrants always improves the privacy of Internet users. The reality is much more subtle.
The vast majority of users have never registered a domain and never will, so WHOIS doesn't affect them, while the vast majority of domains are registered for commercial purposes, and a dismaying number for criminal purposes. A large registrar often turns off 10,000 domains a day for malware, phishing, and other malevolent behavior.
The WHOIS information that most of the waivers concern is very useful for identifying and dealing with criminals. That is so even though a lot of it is faked, since the crooks tend to have patterns when they fake stuff. I'm not guessing about this, I talk to people every day at network operators who are protecting their users and law enforcement who are protecting their citizens.
Registrars should certainly comply with their national laws, and I agree that some of ICANN's rules are silly, e.g., when they grant a waiver, it should automatically apply to other registrars or registries in the same jurisdiction. But when you make it harder to tell who's behind a domain, you're also making it easier for criminals to siphon the money out of your grandmother's bank account. That may be a reasonable tradeoff, but it's a tradeoff and one that deserves better than the kneejerk reeactions we always see here.
R's, John _______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org