Thanks Oliver for sharing and congrats to Valentina for her initiative and excellent (EDRI) article. Best, Wolf Oliver Passek wrote Mon, 3 Aug 2015 16:25:
Interesting critical contribution concerning WHOIS PRIVACY etc. by Valentina Pavel, EDRi member ApTI, Romania for the monthly EDR-Briefing Best, Oliver Passek ICANN considers banning privacy services=======================================================================The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) isproposing a new Internet policy which comes at the expense of humanrights, especially privacy and freedom of speech. The proposed rules areaddressed to companies that provide WHOIS privacy/proxy services (whichrestrict access to domain registrant information) and limit theiravailability to individuals only, denying this service to organisations.Why is this a problem?When you register a domain on the Internet, you are asked for a set ofinformation which will appear in the WHOIS database – a public registrywith all the domain names.Under the terms of the ICANN proposal, domain name registrants who willregister commercial sites will not ! have the possibility to make theregistration via companies that offer the service of de-listing personalinformation from the WHOIS registry. This policy would be unfair anddiscriminatory for vulnerable groups, organisations and entrepreneurswho wish to exercise their right to freedom of expression on theInternet. Is it even in ICANN's remit to decide what is a commercialactivity and what is not? And what is a commercial site? Is it anon-governmental organisation (NGO) selling personalised merchandise viaa commercial site? What about a humanitarian website asking fordonations? Or a blog that sells advertisement space?It is important to understand that there are actors such as politicalgroups, religious organisations, ethnic groups, gender orientationgroups, and others engaged in freedom of expression activities who havea clear need for protection.EDRi member ApTI has prepared a comment for ICANN's public consultationexpressing firm disapproval regarding the proposal. Below a! re some ofthe reasons why greater confidentiality and privacy ! are needed in theWHOIS directory:1. ICANN’s anti privacy domain registration = the new Stop Online PiracyAct (SOPA)The copyright industry's pressure on ICANN to take action againstdomains being used for infringing purposes is well known. However, thedomain name industry should not be asked to play any part in policingthe Internet by being forced to suspend Internet domain names based onaccusations of copyright or trademark infringement by a website. Theeffort to restrict the privacy of domain name registrants is part ofthis wider lobbying effort to push ICANN into an enforcement role.2. Privacy and anonymity are fundamental for the open use of the InternetThe argument that criminals use proxy and privacy registrations to hidetheir identities has been intensively used in the WHOIS privacy debate.However, illegal uses represent a small minority of cases and privacyregistrations do not contribute to a wide-spread criminal behaviour. Thevast majority of domain owners are ! not criminals, so why put everyone atrisk just for catching few perpetrators? This measure isdisproportionate and unjustified and it resembles the deeply flawedreasoning behind adopting mass surveillance decisions.3. The proposal violates the Internet’s core valuesThe proposal closes up the free and open use of the Internet. Certaincategories of people will be left with no guarantees that their messagewill be delivered without abuse and repercussions. Website owners withless popular content or presenting dissident views will fear becomingeasy targets. With their sensitive data displayed in the publicregistry, more and more people will refrain from making their voiceheard online. Self-censorship is not going to contribute to a free andopen Internet.Several privacy campaigns opposing ICANN's proposal, such assavedomainprivacy.org and respectourprivacy.com, were launched, and atotal of 11510 comments were sent to the public consultation. Thecomments are publicly availabl! e and a report based on the inputsreceived is expected on 21 July 2015.! ApTI's full comment for ICANN's public consultation (07.07.2015)http://www.apti.ro/sites/default/files/WHOISprivacy-ICANNpubliccomment7JULY2...: Initial Report on the Privacy & Proxy Services AccreditationIssues Policy Development Process (05.05.2015)https://gnso.icann.org/en/issues/raa/ppsai-initial-05may15-en.pdfSave domain privacyhttps://www.savedomainprivacy.org/with-without-privacy/Changes to domain name rules place user privacy in jeopardy (23.06.2015)https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/06/changes-domain-name-rules-place-user-p... & RIAA demand DNS action against "pirate" domains (14.05.2015)https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-riaa-demand-dns-action-against-pirate-domains-... privacy & proxy services accreditation issues working group initialreport (05.05.0215)https://www.icann.org/public-comments/ppsai-initial-2015-05-05-enComments to the public consultationhttps://forum.icann.org/lists/comments-ppsai-initial-05may15/threads.html(Co... ion by Valentina Pavel, EDRi member ApTI, Romania)
EuroDIG Secretariat http://www.eurodig.org/ mobile +41 79 204 83 87 Skype: Wolf-Ludwig EURALO - ICANN's Regional At-Large Organisation http://euralo.org Profile on LinkedIn http://ch.linkedin.com/in/wolfludwig