iCANN - Please Respect Our Privacy

[shimi <shimi@xxxxxxxxx>]

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,
for the following reasons:

   - Everyone deserves the right to privacy as long as no other human is
   being harmed. In democratic countries, you're innocent unless proven
   otherwise - NOT the other way around!

   - 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.

Please be advised that some businesses were started with the assumption of
privacy (like some of my own) - with some good reasons (freedom of speech
being one) - changing the rules NOW and making everyone vulnerable, is,
plain and simple, unfair.

Also please be advised that some businesses prefer to be doing business
with multiple names for reasons of differentiation, a perfectly legal thing
to do in many (maybe all?) countries - in which they can sell both budget
and premium services and actually be profitable (otherwise they may not be,
up to the point that they could go bankrupt). I personally don't do
anything like this because I find it immoral, but I respect those who do
choose to do that, as eventually their customers do get value.

And finally - as a programmer, let me quote the famous idiom: "If it works
- don't touch it!". Especially not due to lobbyists whose sole purpose is
to make tons of money without actually working for it like most of us do
(serial-suing-lawyers, etc.)

Thank you for listening,

-- Shimi