RE: [gnso-thickwhoispdp-wg] Dangers and risks of thick Whois

[Don Blumenthal <dblumenthal@xxxxxxx>]

First, I’m deliberately avoiding “anonymity” because it has more than one 
meaning and I’m not sure that it truly can exist. I’m channeling a couple of 
sessions of the U Michigan privacy course that I taught a couple of years ago.

Amr,

Can you expand on your concerns about privacy and thick Whois, particularly in 
view of your comment about “almost all” information being public?

Evan,

I’ve read and heard many times that individuals should be able to have domain 
names and still maintain their privacy. Does your site setup protect bloggers 
any better than privacy/proxy services would if they owned domains?

Thanks.

Don

From: owner-gnso-thickwhoispdp-wg@xxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:owner-gnso-thickwhoispdp-wg@xxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Evan Leibovitch
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 10:27 AM
To: Amr Elsadr
Cc: Thick Whois
Subject: Re: [gnso-thickwhoispdp-wg] Dangers and risks of thick Whois

On 29 January 2013 07:45, Amr Elsadr 
<aelsadr@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:aelsadr@xxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

Apart from agreeing with Frédéric's response, I feel that online anonymity is 
in some circumstances an important measure that needs to be taken to avoid 
danger scenarios. It is true that almost all registrant information is publicly 
accessible despite registering domain names with registrars in 
countries/jurisdictions with data privacy laws. Being an Egyptian, I have a 
very personal perspective on the issue of online anonymity and feel that a 
policy for all existing and future gTLDs registries using "thick" Whois is a 
step backwards for practicing freedom of expression.

This raises a common implicit yet unchallenged assumption -- that there is a 
necessary link between freedom of speech and owning a domain name.

As someone who runs a site that hosts a number of anonymous bloggers -- none of 
whom requires their own domain name in order to protect their anonymity -- I am 
unconvinced of that assumed link. Furthermore, privacy is not synonymous with 
anonymity.

- Evan