ICANN - Richard Armstrong Says Respect Our Privacy

["Magelord" <magelord@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

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. 

Private information should be kept private. Thank you.
Keep in mind that not just Americans register domains governed by ICANN. Some 
people, in other countries that don’t have the freedoms we have in the US or 
Canada, could
be put very much at risk, from their own governments that could not – up until 
now – even get a court order to force a US company to give up private 
information on one of
their citizens. 
Also please note that the country specific domain registries, in some 
countries, already provide privacy automatically, on ALL domains registered 
with them. The .ca TLD is
one example. There isn’t even a separate fee involved for it. 
Much of the world looks at the US as the biggest protector of freedoms there is 
and count on you to set the examples that the world SHOULD live by. 
Please don’t let us down. 
Rick Armstrong