Grave concern regarding proposed changes to ICANN WHOIS publicity and sensitive domain owners

[William Black <wblack.da@xxxxxxxxx>]

In re: proposal to require authentic details displayed via WHOIS:

The people who are writing to propose this change are doing so with full
knowledge that the targeted audience is at best minimum. However, by
requiring authentic WHOIS information to be present in the registrar
information will affect those not in the target demographic -- more
importantly, domain owners who have a history of being harrassed, abused
and sought out by perverts, trolls and determined people whose masked
intent is to stalk said individuals freely. By requiring authentic details
in WHOIS information, you are permitting undiscovered criminals with all
the tools they need to carry out their treachery without punishment. There
is a lot more harm done than there is viable remedy.

Said sensitive domain owners range from time-served people who have turned
their lives around, people who advocate for social justice, people who
advocate for freedom and others that, if their information became freely
public, they can be the victim of executed death threats, mass harassment,
murder by estranged boyfriends/girlfriends/husbands/wives, and sexual abuse
by stalkers and/or rapists. IN SHORT, you are giving these criminals a free
ticket to a victim's real physical location to carry out their treacherous
wishes.

Requiring authentic details to be displayed during a WHOIS lookup puts
these very sensitive people in danger of their physical lives, and is a
catastrophic disaster that is waiting to happen.