Domain Privacy

[Andrew Wooster <andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To who it may concern,

I’m disturbed by the proposal to remove proxy services for domain registration:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/06/changes-domain-name-rules-place-user-privacy-jeopardy
 
<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/06/changes-domain-name-rules-place-user-privacy-jeopardy>

We need more mechanisms around protecting personal information, if people 
desire it, not fewer. In the past, WHOIS information has been used to send me 
junk mail, been mined by telephone scammers seeking to scam me personally via 
phone calls, domain registration scammers, etc. In addition, my companies have 
been repeatedly harassed by commercial vendors and scammers — simply because of 
ICANN’s failures to adequately restrict this information.

Proxy registrations have dramatically improved the situation.

Additionally, removing that capability would put at-risk communities at even 
more risk of harassment. In an age of SWATting, public threats against 
individuals by radical extremists, and other threats, a backwards move like 
this seems poorly thought out.

-Andrew Wooster