Proxy registration study
Thank you for publishing this interesting research. I have three very quick suggestions. First, taking a stratified sample is all well and good, but you only examine 5 .biz domains. Perhaps it would be more useful if you dropped .biz completely, and likely .info too. Or, now that the structure for the study is in place, perhaps you could survey a much larger total number of domains. I would like to see comparisons in uptake rates between domains and that is not possible from the small data set you have now. Second, I am not convinced that stratification over TLD is the right approach. Different registrars charge more or less for proxy service. Presumably that affects uptake rates. Looking at multiple registrars in an uncontrolled way introduces a serious confounding variable. At the very least it would help readers interpret results if you document what percentage of the sample comes from which registrar and what their price structure was at the time of the study. The final paper would be markedly improved if you could perform additional analysis at the registrar level. Third, discussing the proxy rate world-wide seems to miss another valuable discussion. You know the nations where domains are registered. How does nationality affect uptake? Again, this likely requires a larger sample than your initial 580 domains, even if you group into areas like "Asia" and "Europe." Is there any budget for a larger sample and additional analysis? Mr. Neylon's comments about people obscuring information by means other than proxy services is very well taken, but seems to me beyond the well-stated scope of the paper. Perhaps the final report will document that more clearly, though, as it seems like an obvious criticism to take off the table. But if you do stick with a small sample, perhaps someone could code the number of missing or obviously wrong answers. That data plus proxy adoption rate by nation would be fantastic. Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments. This is a great start at answering a number of very interesting questions. I look forward to the final report.
Aleecia M. McDonald
PhD Candidate
Engineering & Public Policy
Carnegie Mellon University
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