ICANN - Christian Nielsen Says Respect Our Privacy, but allow more transparency

[Chris Nielsen <christian@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):
*While I enjoy private WHOIS services, they should NOT be used to avoid 
complaints and investigations.* The information should be private to 
those doing casual searches on the web, but if someone contacts a 
registrar, the information should be provided without undue delay and at 
no cost to anyone who requests it. But the information of those making 
the request should be confirmed and made available to the WHOIS user 
who's information is being requested. There needs to be more 
transparency on the web and not less.
*Private information should be kept **/mostly/**private.* Private 
information of scammers, spammers, and abusers should be available upon 
demand by anyone that requests it, and the requester information should 
be verified and provided to the WHOIS customer.
*Please note that some providers of private WHOIS services* may make a 
push to keep WHOIS privacy as it is currently, but the source of those 
campaigns should be noted and discounted. Their motivation is not 
privacy, but profit since they offer a paid service that may be 
discontinued if the laws are changed. Please make it harder for 
criminals and abusers to hide. Those that are honest can find other ways 
to protect themselves if they feel they need to.
*I would like to see all providers of WHOIS information offer email 
forwarding to whois customers at no cost.* This would allow spammers to 
be identified and abused email addresses changed in the whois records.
--
Thank you,
Chris Nielsen
Nielsen Technical Services
9145 Ranier N
Maple Grove, MN 55311
+1-952-223-4755 CST
www.NielsenTech.com <http://www.NielsenTech.com/?frm=sigemail>
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