All:

I know this is a highly technical issue for most of us but Bill Jouris, one of our NARALO members, is pointing us to the fact that we should comment on Appendix E - Confusables on the Latin Script LGR which is up for comments at the moment.

The Confusables are those international characters that are very similar compared to the Latin script. Therefore, they are difficult to discern when used in domain names.  However, the Latin Generation Panel (Latin GP) has decided that they are not similar enough to be considered Variants (which would be automatically blocked because they could not be distinguished from each other).
 
I suggest watching the presentation that Bill gave us about this same theme during our January 11, 2021 NARALO monthly call. In his presentation, Bill showed examples of how these Confusables can be used to abuse the DNS.  You can see a recording of his presentation HERE (https://icann.zoom.us/rec/play/-b0jOA1WOmzJM6KyGfZNd9DrsTNweEd1fONbtoaZBuBggcwdvghmounvVMxCTUJpraPJgrlsgJ4cLhwu.MVGrnly082CzQ4Vu?autoplay=true). It starts at 6:10 min. NOTE: Download the presentation file if it does not run in your browser.

I have attached Appendix-E to make it more accessible to read so you do not have to chase it down. 

Please comment HERE (https://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/proceeding/proposal-for-latin-script-root-zone-label-generation-rules-23-09-2021) with whatever opinion you may assemble for this. Due date for comments is November 23, 2021.

For your information, this is the comment that I submitted:

"Appendix E - Confusables - I went through this document and found out that there are many characters that can easily be abused in domain names to harm end-users. For example Latin Small Letter U with Acute (00FA) ú  - VS.- Greek Small Letter Upsilon with Tono - (03CD) - ύ are almost indistinguishable. I recommend not including any of the characters presented in Appendix-E until further assessment with the community is done on these."


Forward this email to others so they can comment as well.


-ed

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