Policy Changes To Remove Privacy Protection Around Domain Name Owner Info

[William Garber <williamcgarber@xxxxxxxxx>]

To Whom It May Concern,

I am in the process of putting together a website/blog to publish humorous 
essays and other creative pieces that I have written over the past several 
years. I have been hesitant to move forward, however, because I am also the 
target of a stalker.

The person stalking me has a history of violence, has served jail time for 
assault, and has threatened my life on multiple occasions. He has attempted, 
once successfully, to break into my email and social media accounts, and has 
harassed me online for years. He has attempted to learn my place of employment 
and has tried to steal my phone number and home address from mutual 
acquaintances.

Due to these factors, I'm sure you understand why my privacy is important to me 
-- I have avoided building my website specifically because I am afraid that 
this person will find it and somehow use that information to his benefit, even 
if I write under a pseudonym.

Which is why I was dismayed to learn this morning that ICANN is considering 
removing privacy protections around domain name ownership. If all my stalker 
has to do is a little bit of research about my website to find my name and home 
address, then it is not safe for me to have a website. While my site will not 
be commercial, I may wish to monetize it one day. I also don't like the idea 
that I can never start an online business for fear that it will lead someone 
who wishes to harm me directly to my doorstep.

I don't know if you, whoever you are that's reading this, have ever had to live 
under the shadow of someone who is obsessed with hurting you. What it's like to 
be afraid to share anything online, to visit friends, to go out to a movie, or 
to dinner, or out for a simple drink. To wake up night after night in a panic 
thinking that this person has found out where you live and is waiting for you 
just outside. Do you know what it's like to never feel relaxed? To feel a spike 
of dread every time you get a phone call from a number you don't recognize? To 
get butterflies in your stomach when you check your email? To nervously check 
Google, day after day, to see what information is listed about you? To search 
on variations of your name and home city? To check not just page one of the 
search results, but clear through page 10, because you know that's exactly what 
he's doing. And then to repeat the process on Yahoo? On Bing? On even more 
obscure search engines like Duck Duck Go? Do you know what it's like to try to 
control your privacy in a boat that's leaking, with new leaks showing up every 
day, knowing that someday you're going to sink and that there are sharks 
waiting for you in the water?

No one should have to live like this, yet people do, most of them women. There 
are countless numbers of us who spend every day afraid, and we are forced to 
live with that fear in a world that is determined to find new ways to make 
everyone, well, easier to find.

Copyright protections and the rationale I've heard for publicizing domain 
registration information may be important, but they will never be as important 
as the safety of my family. There are so many victims of stalking and 
harassment who feel the same way. To remove privacy controls from domain 
registration means that people like me can no longer register domains. Website 
and blog ownership will then become just another gag to silence us. Please let 
us have our voice.

Thank you for your time. I hope that ICANN will make the right decision in this 
matter.

-William Garber