ICANN - James Tandy Says Respect Our Privacy

[Admin <admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear ICANN –

Regarding the proposed rules governing companies that provide WHOIS privacy 
services (as set forth in the Privacy and
Policy Services Accreditation Issues Policy document):

I urge you to respect internet users' rights to privacy and due process.
- Everyone deserves the right to privacy.
- No one’s personal information should be revealed without a court order, 
regardless of whether the request comes from
a private individual or law enforcement agency.

The WHOIS system is already widely abused by companies who use the data to try 
to do things ranging from:
Charging extortionate amounts for domain renewals, even though the domain is 
not with their company, and it would in
fact be a transfer.
Contact business owners to try to sell them various services, whcih is clearly 
not what the WHOIS system is intended for.

I would suggest making the WHOIS system closed, that is anyone with legitimate 
interest in the domain name system
should be granted a login (Such as all ICANN accredited registrars, and their 
resellers only).

For businesses it is already a legal requirement to display your contact 
details on any website and all communications
that are sent out.

For individuals, and sole traders, there should not be a requirement for the 
WHOIS data to be publicly visible, and
rather than having to rely on third party services, a Whois Opt-out system 
similar to the one in place for .uk should
be adopted.

Private information should be kept private. Thank you.

James Tandy
-- 
TandyUK Servers Limited

Tel: 01903 247 011
Tel: +44 7092 277 599
Www: http://www.tandyukservers.co.uk
Email: support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

TandyUK Servers Limited Registered in England and Wales, Company number 8314911
VAT Registered in the UK, number 182 0661 19
Registered Office: Bishopstone, 36 Crescent Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 
1RL