Removing Private WhoIs Would Treat Webmasters as Guilty, violating presumption of innocence

[Misti Wolanski <misti.wolanski@xxxxxxxxx>]

I am an individual who has multiple domains and works/lives online, due to 
health, inclination, and personal safety concerns. (If not for the Internet, 
I’d be on disability or dead. Probably dead.)

Privacy and proxy services should remain available to everyone, regardless of 
their status as an individual, a commercial organization, or a noncommercial 
organization.

Getting rid of privacy and proxy registration would treat everyone as guilty, 
without any presumption of innocence, because it would assume that folks in 
general need their contact information public, in case they might break the law.

This also actually PUTS MORE PEOPLE AT RISK (because it increases criminals’ 
ease of getting others’ information and their desire to steal others’ info to 
use for the site registration).

And some people need privacy for their own safety. Much violent crime and abuse 
is inflicted by people who know the victim personally. Many victims escape 
online. The proposed policy would steal that protection.

The current setup lets a site owner be identified via court order or comparable 
proof of guilt, so they can then be prosecuted. There’s certainly legwork 
involved, but that’s a standard part of presumption of innocence (“innocent 
until proven guilty”)—the burden is on the wronged party to prove the 
wrongdoing. (And that’s how it should be, even though abusers and criminals 
with any smarts know how to minimize, twist, or destroy any evidence that 
proves them wrong.)

There’s no reason to break what is already fine.

—Misti