ICANN's Whois Privacy Change Proposal Will Place Us In Danger

[Charlie Plotkin <wcp7511@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear ICANN,



I understand that you are, for some obscure reason, considering exposing
domain name owners' private information on the internet.



Do you not understand that by doing so you are putting the privacy, lives,
livelihoods, peace of mind and safety of millions of people in danger? Do
you not understand that there are dangerous people out there who will
happily use the registrant information you are thinking about splashing all
over the internet, to harm domain name owners?



Just as one has the inalienable right to keep one's home and telephonic
information unlisted from hardcopy directories, one has the exact same
right to keep that same information unlisted from whois lookups, and for
the exact same reason: our lives and the lives of our families may be
placed in danger if our details are placed into the hands of people we do
not choose to place those details into. Do you not understand this? How on
earth has this absurd idea of releasing people's private information all
over the internet gotten so far that you're even taking submissions on it?
Honestly, wake up. What kind of dream world do you live in?



You're perfectly aware of how criminals use any and all email addresses
they find online to send spam, to attempt to hack computers and to attempt
to con and bribe people. You're perfectly aware of how cyberstalkers and
paedophiles and cyberbullies use any residential information they can find
online to harass and terrorize their victims. You're perfectly aware of how
deranged elements of society such as these are perfectly happy to use any
and all real-world information that they come across online to attack
innocent people offline... And yet here you are thinking about blurting
millions of domain owners' private residential information out all over the
internet. What is wrong with you? Honestly, what is wrong with you people?
Have you no common sense?



Whoever you are reading this right now, do a thought experiment with me,
one that I think will be very illuminating. You have a personal email
address, right? I’m sure you do. How would you feel if your email provider
suddenly got it into their head that to make continued use of that email
address, your private data must now be released onto the internet? Consider
that. Are you thinking on that? Now all you need is to send out that one
email to that one deranged individual one day who gets it into their head
that you slighted them… and now that person has all of your contact
details. How would you feel about that? Any corrupt, deranged, psychotic,
evil, and just simply plain bored-and-looking-for-trouble individuals you
have had contact with via email now have your full contact details and can
now attack you anonymously online and offline. How would you feel about
that? Not great, I’m sure. Well, that’s exactly what you’re considering
doing here to domain owners. Wake up.



I also find it ironic, amusing, and if I’m honest, absurd, that in the
ICANN forum for comments on this report, you block out people’s email
addresses with xxx’s to protect their privacy, and yet you’re willing to
blurt out these same people's entire contact information all over the
internet by removing their right to whois privacy. Absurd. Utterly absurd.


Even more absurd is that when we send you an email to submit our comment to
the comment forum, you send us an automated email back saying that we must
confirm receipt of this message for the following reasons:


1. We receive a high level of spam and this is a vital safeguard

2. Your comment will be posted on a publicly available Web archive


Unbelievable! So let's get this straight:


1. You don't want spam infiltrating your own servers, but yet you want our
private details to be available on the internet for others to spam us every
time we register a domain name!


2. You're telling us that our comment will be posted on a publicly
available web archive and so are telling us our privacy will be at stake
and we must consider sending you information, but yet you want our full
contact details to be publicly available to every person on the planet
whenever we purchase a domain name!


Does the irony of this completely escape you?!


I am literally floored by this proposal.