[gnso-dow123] Info From Australian (auDA) review of Whois

["Milton Mueller" <Mueller@xxxxxxx>]

Registrant contact details
Submissions from IP and copyright interests called for disclosure of
full registrant contact details. It was argued that Australian privacy
legislation does not prohibit disclosure provided the registrant has
given consent (express or implied). Some submissions acknowledged that
registrant contact details can be found via other means where the WHOIS
record includes an official identifier (eg. ACN or ABN), however this is
often not the case where the registrant has used a registered business
name or trade mark as eligibility criteria for the domain name.

auDA response:
Although disclosure of full registrant contact details may not breach
Australian privacy legislation, we do not believe that such disclosure
is in the interests of registrants or the general public. Given the
sensitivity surrounding the disclosure of email addresses, our view is
that most registrants would not want their physical address and phone
number disclosed on WHOIS. We are concerned that registrants may provide
proxy or false contact details to avoid public disclosure, thereby
undermining the quality and integrity of .au registry data. We note that
ASIC
and ABR also do not disclose full contact details online.