ICANN - Amadi Lovelace Says Respect Our Privacy

[Aecamadi <aecamadi@xxxxxxxxx>]

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.  

As a blogger who writes about sensitive issues of politics, cultural criticism, 
gender, sexuality and religion I receive violent comments and threats on a 
frequent basis in the comments on my site and on various social media outlets. 
Some of those angered by my opinions have made reference to sexually assaulting 
me or even ending my life. And I'm not alone, every woman I know who blogs 
regularly - on any topic- has received threats like this, some quite graphic 
and detailed.

Right now, those making these comments can be banned from my site and most 
don't reappear. The persistent ones can be dealt with by security teams when 
they decide to approach via social media networks or other sites outside of my 
own.

But there's no security team a click away if one of these people began sending 
me anonymous threats by postal mail. And if one of these people showed up on my 
doorstep, I would be at their mercy until police came to my aid, if I even had 
the chance to call for them. The  idea that someone who is willing to suggest 
mutilating me or harming my loved ones because they dislike words that I've 
written could easily find my home address by simply doing a Whois search on my 
domain is appalling. 

Worse: it's silencing. I, and I'm sure many others, would be forced to shutter 
our sites if the cost of keeping them meant that our security was dissolved and 
our identifying information was made public.

Using the name of transparency to make people vulnerable to violence despite 
the fact that they are easily reachable via their privacy screen providers is 
unnecessary and harmful, to the public discourse and the public welfare.

Private information should be kept private. Thank you.