Antisocial doxing policy that places small business owners and vulnerable individuals at grave risk

["Karthik S" <karthik@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

ICANN staff,

This is a dangerous world and doxing, swatting, stalking etc. are 
common occurrences. Small businesses operating out of homes and individuals 
writing about controversial topics tend to use WHOIS privacy on their domains 
to protect themselves from unwarranted harassment. Mega-corporations can afford 
to have dedicated staff and security to deal with this; individuals and small 
organizations do not.

There are legal procedures in place in many countries to deal with unscrupulous 
website operators. Anyone who has a problem with a particular website can get a 
court order and unmask the domain owner. However, it seems that certain 
organizations don't want to be bothered with all this and are inventing 
policies that make their job easier (and, perhaps, cheaper). Unfortunately, in 
trying to target a few bad apples, tens of millions of individuals and small 
businesses will end up as collateral damage.

IT IS UNFAIR to force millions of people to give up any expectation of privacy 
when operating their website, and subject themselves to possible harassment, 
just because they happen to indulge in "commercial" activity to put food on 
their table. ICANN should not be party to such machinations.

The convenience of the few should not outweigh the security of the many.

-KS