[gnso-whois-study] Revised Hypotheses for Area 3: Availability of Privacy Services
My assignment from the first call was to continue development of hypotheses for Area 3: Availability of Privacy Services. Revised hypotheses are shown below, and attached, and in the wiki. Steve DelBianco executive director, NetChoice www.NetChoice.org Washington DC +1 202.420.7482 Area 3: Availability of privacy services (as amended by Steve DelBianco, 14-Jul-08) Study Submission # 2: [submitted by Steve DelBianco, NetChoice] 1) Gather data on types of privacy services offered through manual review of websites offering registration services and survey of registrars and 2) attempt to correlate service characteristics (cost and features) with the relative share of eligible registrants who choose to use a given privacy protection service. Registrants presently have options to effectively shield their personal information from public display in Whois (i.e. proxy services offered by registrars and by third parties). If a significant number of registrants are aware of the option to use proxy services but do not select them, we can conclude that the cost of proxy services do not justify the benefits of privacy protection. Study Submission # 5: [submitted by Alan Levin] Study whether resellers and registrars offer privacy services to differentiate themselves from others, and, if so, whether this is a factor that encourages competition and whether it is available at no charge. The whois at present, allows resellers and registrars to offer privacy services, which is an opportunity for these industry players to differentiate themselves on value (rather than reputation only). GAC recommendation #7: What is the historical trend and current percentage of the registrars' and their affiliates' proxy and privacy registrations in relation to the total number of domain name registrations in gTLDs? [implied hypothesis] A growing share of registrants are protecting the privacy of their Whois data by using proxy registrations and/or privacy services. GAC recommendation #8: What is the percentage of registrars and all affiliates that offer proxy or privacy registrations? [implied hypothesis] A growing share of registrars and affiliates are offering proxy registration and/or privacy services. Attachment:
Area 3 hypotheses.doc |