41 reasons why exposing personal data is a bad idea!

[Two Day <today_twoday@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear ICANN –

Regarding the proposed rules 
governing companies that provide WHOIS privacy services (as set forth in
 the Privacy and Policy Services Accreditation Issues Policy document):

I urge you to respect internet users' rights to privacy and due process. 
- Everyone deserves the right to privacy.
-
 No one’s personal information should be revealed without a court order,
 regardless of whether the request comes from a private individual or 
law enforcement agency. 

Private information should be kept private. Full stop. Especially when it 
belongs to people who consider themselves vulnerable in some way!!

I would ask you to seriously consider the reason why people have chosen to have 
their personal data kept private:
Many home businesses, microbusiness, "investment websites" are run from peoples 
residential addresses because they cannot afford to rent separate business 
premises.Often the people that have bought domains or are running home based 
businesses have been forced to work from home because they are too sick to 
find/keep a standard job, single women, single mothers, been made reductant, 
......ie they are vulnerable to loss of livelihood, personal security, attack 
(burgular looking for passwords to their business or domain account), hackers 
etcMany people wish to keep their personal data personal to reduce likelihood 
of personal, physical attack or bullying or ridicule, or loss of life etc. 
Examples of type of people that are extra cautious about giving out personal 
information include been whistleblowers, refugees, politically vulnerable, have 
enemies (or ex spouses), been victims of domestic violence, suffering trauma 
from previous attack on their life or home intrusion.Parents wish to protect 
their children by not making their physical address or contact details public.
Many people running home based businesses or mobile businesses (we come to you) 
share houses/addresses/accomodation with other people. This means that not only 
would icann expose the domain name holders personal details, but also unrelated 
parties addresses (which is unethical). Thus people can have their personal 
data exposed by their housemates without their permission or knowledge.
Exposing their personal data would alos be exposing their email address or 
other information that they have used as a username for their domain account or 
their websites. This increases the liklihood of hackers because they now know 
the username or can research it or more easily guess the username for accounts. 
Domain accounts should have the same status as bank accounts for security 
reasons.Banks and governments have been strongly advising people to keep their 
personal data personal for years. Exposing personal data would then increase 
fraud. 
Many people have chosen to put a lot of personal information about their life 
in their blogs (eg Its my birthday today, or I own this valuable asset, or I am 
sick with this condition (therefore more vulnerable for attack)) which is safe 
if no one knows where they live and do not have other personal information. 
Exposing personal data by icann will then provide criminals with valuable 
pieces of the jigsaw to hack or steal domains, burgle their homes, attack them 
physically, steal their identity and then all their assets &livelihood.People 
often buy domain names for their new business idea, invention, new product, or 
trade secret years before the idea is ready to be made into a website. Exposing 
personal data could lead to loss of intellect property, give competitors an 
unfair advantage, make all their product development and research void.Many 
people make their domain ownership private to improve the SEO (search engine 
optimisation) of their network/portfolio of websites. Exposing domain ownership 
when then give google and other search engines the ability to nullify the value 
of many incoming links to websites when ranking the website for SEO purposes. 
Exposing personal data could then take away business, cause traffic to 
completely dry up and then result on loss of business income and 
livelihood.Many people do not want others to know what they own or their 
investments, as the best way to protect wealth is to not advertise that you 
have it. People perceived as wealthy (which could include domain name & website 
holders) including their children would then become greater targets for 
kidnapping, theft, hacking etcOther people do not want people to know that they 
are "wealthy" or an entrenpeneur because this can attract false friends, or 
romantic partners who find their wealth more attractive than them as an 
individual.Similarly aged or terminal people could suddenly find they get extra 
attention (non genuine), because they could be included in an inheritance (if 
domain/website/business ownership can be inherited). (But who never paid them 
any attention until they realised it could be financially beneficial to do so, 
thus "deceiving"/false motives the aged relative/friend and stealing from the 
family/friends that had been caring for them their whole life.
People make their personal data because they do not want to be spammed, have 
unsolicited phone calls, & have unsolicited people knocking on their doors.Most 
people would agree that it is easier and more affordable to keep your private 
information private rather than  pay for home security, body guards, or move 
out of shared accomodation, pay for extra insurance (if available), or keeping 
moving residences to move away from problem people.Making personal data public 
increases the ability of con-men to target people for crime.Making addresses 
and personal details public increases likehood of untrustworthy people using 
legitimate causes for home access such as cleaning, nursing, repairs & 
maintenance, rental inspections, sale of realestate being on the lookout for 
personal information, computers, smart phones, passwords that may have been 
written down somewhere, because they now know who has something valuable to 
them that they can target.It would be worthless paying for a silent number, if 
icann is going to advertise it to the world.Many people regularly use paper 
shredders or pay companies to shred their paperwork, to protect the data that 
icann wants to advertise to the world.Many people would consider making public 
their online shopping transactions, real estate portfolio, or entries in their 
bank accounts of similar magnitude to making their domain transactions 
public.Buyers of existing domains, websites, businesses with a web presence 
would have an unfair advantage in negotiations as they could research the 
sellers personal details and interests, and motives in selling, and what price 
they might accept. Whereas the seller could not research the buyers perspective 
or position. 




I would anticipate these potential consequences if icann exposes peoples 
personal data:
Loss of goodwill and trust in Icann, which would not be able to be 
regained.Public outcry.
Strict Government Laws about privacy that website and companies have to adhere 
to (which are valid due to customers real concerns about privacy, safety and 
identity theft, spam etc) will become a joke, if website owners and domain 
holders are not entitled to the same level of privacy for the same reasons.
Increased use of false names, pen names and pseudo names when signing up for 
new accounts. Data quality for icann would decrease. Whilst making it harder 
for users to manage, or verify if their account was hacked.Increased expiration 
(rather than renewal) of domains (less income to icann), by those concerned 
about their privacy.
Also increase "on sale" of domains by those concerned about their privacy. New 
providers of new TLD's are likely to have a loss of business.
Creation of un necessary fear in domain owners, especially vulnerable 
(refugeees, single women/mothers, sick, whistleblowers, sharemates, ex spouses, 
those forced to work from home etc). 
Potential litigation against icann for exposing their personal details where it 
can be linked to crime, bullying, hacking, loss of life etc
Extra spam which will result in requests for icann to provide free 
comprehensive software to reduce spam - not sure whether any such software is 
possible to make.Extra hacking into domain accounts (username likely to be 
guessed/researched), plus targeting of higher value accounts.Extra bank fraud 
with regard to bank accounts and identity theft, as personal ID data would then 
be available publically.Domain providers would then need to provide the 
facility to regularly change user names as well as passwords. 
Financial compensation would be sought by domain owners who have paid money to 
"Who is" (and similar) to pretect their privacy, and previous money spent would 
now be null and void... ie no need to have paid for it in first place if 
personal details was later going to be exposed/advertised. 
Can icann afford to refund every domain owner that has paid for privacy 
services that would then become null?
Icann would put some companies out of business, obviously "whois", but also 
website owners relying on SEO to market their website and get traffic to 
it.Many of the reasons for exposing icann customers personal details are likely 
to be negated by all of the side effects of doing so. 
Many people would consider exposing their personal details illegal and a breach 
of privacy, so some litigation could be expected.Is Icann going to be offering 
free insurance and guarantees against domain theft, personal attack, business 
fraud, bank fraud as a result of making vulnerable peoples personal details 
public?Icann would be expected to pay for un necessary costs that they incur to 
their customers. (Since the issue has now been highlighted to Icann). This 
could include extra home security, business premise rental, body guards, safes 
to store passwords and usernames in, extra medical costs incurred from results 
of crime, compensation for loss of business, extra insurance costs etc etc.

Thank you for your consideration.

 From Concerned Female Net Citizen in Australia. 

Name with held as this email will be published on the internet. Happy to 
provide if not made public.







Anne Homer