Individual privacy and individual safety

[Carol Van Natta <carol.vannatta@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear ICANN,

RE: *Intitial Report on the Privacy a& Proxy Services*

Your proposed changes to the privacy protections of domain name
registration are extremely worrisome for anyone with a name-based domain
name. I am an author; I connect with my readers via my website. I post
affiliate links to where people can buy my books.

As a single female with a minor public presence, I am vulnerable to
harassment by your average troll just because I'm visible. Don't believe
me? Look up "Gamergate." Look up death threats to Rebecca Watson
<http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/11/14/363837837/victims-of-online-threats-say-perpetrators-arent-being-caught>
.

I can protect myself, somewhat, by being careful with what I post to social
media and keeping my personal data private. If you publish my home address,
email, and phone number because my domain name is used for "commercial
activity," you've just given trolls, spammers, identity thieves, and social
engineers a free candy store. If I piss someone off online because I have
an opinion about something, you've just made it easy for them to send me
unordered pizza, or destroy my lawn, or report an incident that draws a
police SWAT team. Gee, thanks.

Forcing my domain registrar to give up the data on receiving a complaint is
a lot of extra work for them, so they'll probably either raise their prices
or drop the privacy service altogether.

Your proposed changes mean that to have a website AND protect myself, I'll
have to rent a mailbox and get another phone line. I'm lucky those options
are available — not everyone has them. May I bill you for the extra $150
per month this will cost?

The reasoning behind the proposed change seems to be for the purpose of
reducing piracy and making it easier to identify lawbreakers. So a few
thousand miscreants get tracked, while tens of millions of domain owners
give up their privacy rights to make that happen. The ends DON'T justify
the means in this case. And it's not bloody likely to stop piracy, either.

It is a bad policy, and should not be implemented. ICANN should
automatically protect private information, not expose it.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Carol Van Natta
​970-988-3133​

carol.vannatta@xxxxxxxxx

*My science fiction novels,* *Overload Flux **and** Minder Rising**, are
available from your favorite ebook retailer. Visit* Author.CarolVanNatta.com
<http://author.carolvannatta.com/books/minder-rising/> for all the details.
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