Please Respect Our Privacy

["Joe Hochstuhl" <joe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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. 

I do not have but two commercial sites, a small web hosting company and a 
technical consulting business. But I do run a number of hobby based web sites. 
One of which is a political ideology site. As you might be aware, debate of 
political ideas can become heated. On that site I employ whois protection 
services. The reason is obvious, I can't have an irrational commenter showing 
up at my front door with my family inside. Proposals like the ones you are 
considering could very well force me not to offer opinion based or hobby based 
websites and in fact, have a distinct chilling effect across the spectrum.

Private information should be kept private. Thank you.

Joe Hochstuhl
NDTS Consulting