Respect Our Privacy

[William Gibson <williamgibson@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. 


There are existing tools that are more than adequate to determine the actual 
owner of a website, should a *genuine* need be demonstrated through *legal* 
means. The desire of some corporate entities to save themselves the trouble of 
following existing legal processes when squelching types of speech or 
infringement of copyright they suspect may be taking place-- the desire of 
corporations to have ICANN do their work for them-- is hardly sufficient reason 
to expose actual, vulnerable human beings to abuse or risk of harm, or to tax 
them for a functionality that should be basic to the internet.


Your raison d' etre is making the internet work, not making it work better for 
the rich and powerful. 


Private information should
be kept private. Thank you.



-WSG