Privacy

["J Delman" <jdelman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

re: ICANN At-Large Forum>"If who is information is made confidential, the
law enforcement all over the world will have a serious hurdle in
investigations."

Why can't this information be made available only to legal authorities and
not the general public? I'm not looking to screen any illegal activities,
and I have no problem with my info being provided to legal authorities, I
just don't want it made available to every scammer, spammer, or wacko who
has access to the internet. This policy discriminates against the writer,
artist, blogger, hobbyist, or small business person operating out of his or
her private home - I don't imagine the CEO of Amazon.com has to make HIS
personal home address & phone number available to the entire world, does he?
(I would also like to point out the extreme irony of the fact that when I
look up the domain registration info on whois.com for whois.com itself, it
is not available!)

I also think ICANN should require all authorized registrars to explicitly
and *concisely* state at the time of domain registration - and not with a
link to a lengthy privacy policy which nobody reads, but right on the page
where you fill in your name, address etc. - that their registration info
will be made publicly available on whois.com. I would bet hard cash that
most individuals purchasing domain names don't know about this policy.

Now Whois.com tells me I can get a private registration through them (and
only through them) for $10/year. Yet I see nothing on the ICANN website to
indicate that such an option is now available.

J. Delman