Public Records Questioned on Web
By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet
Writer
MARINA DEL REY, Calif.--As
more individuals build their own Web sites,
some privacy advocates now question
requirements that the site owners disclose
their personal contact information.
Names, e-mail addresses,
postal addresses and telephone numbers for more
than 24 million domain names are
stored in databases called Whois. The
information is available to anyone
with an Internet connection.
Its like a global phone
directory -without the option for an unlisted number.
"Sacrificing your privacy
should not be a condition of access to the domain
space," said Alan Davidson, staff
counsel with the Center for Democracy and
Technology.
Most people may not care and
would list their contact information anyway,
just like most telephone customers
now list their numbers.
But Davidson said Internet
users ought to have a choice -for instance, they
may want to stay anonymous if they
are human rights advocates and other
dissidents fearful of repercussion
from oppressive governments.
Ellen Rony, author of the
Domain Name Handbook, said she knew of
someone stalked based on
information from the databases.
On the other hand, she said,
the tool proves helpful for researchers to gauge
the origins and veracity of Web
sites, and the stalking incident appears an
aberration.
"I can see both sides," she
said. "Historically, Whois is always public."
The Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees
the master record keeper of Web
addresses and the domain registration
companies, currently requires
disclosure of contact information for holders of
.com, .net and .org names.
Andrew McLaughlin, ICANNs
chief policy officer, said the organization may
have to revisit Whois policies next
year, but it is not on the agenda for its annual
meeting this week.
Part of the drive comes from
the European Union, which passed a law
prohibiting the transfer of data to
the United States and other non-EU countries
that dont meet EU standards for
protecting personal information.
Back in the 1980s, when the
Whois database was developed, Internet privacy
wasnt a big deal. The Internet was
mostly a research tool for government and
universities.
"We all knew each other," said
Karl Auerbach, a longtime Internet user who
was recently elected to ICANN.
But these days, Auerbach said,
that same Whois database creates unwanted
e-mail and unsolicited phone calls.
Davidson said times have
changed, and the Internet must change as well.
"Now, you have regular people
using it and theres a much greater need to
protect privacy," he said.
Registration companies offer
access to the databases in order to let users
determine whether the domain names
they want are available. But when a name is
taken, the registrar often links to
the records for that name as well.
The idea is to help users
contact the names owner for possible purchase, even
though the databases originally
helped computer administrators contact one
another when networks go awry.
Lawyers also use the databases
to check on names that may tread on their
clients trademark rights. Steven J.
Metalitz, vice president for the International
Intellectual Property Alliance,
said such open access is important to deter abusers.
At VeriSign Global Registry
Services, which runs the databases for .com, .net
and .org, Vice President Chuck
Gomes said technology may settle the issue in the
next year or two.
New tools, he said, could help
meet the needs of law enforcement officials and
trademark owners while protecting
privacy for individuals in other circumstances.
In the meantime, the records
remain open, and many of the proposals for new
domain suffixes call for open Whois
databases as well.
"Its the model thats out there,"
said John Kane, head of a marketing task
force for Afilias, which is seeking
a .web suffix. "Its a public resource. You dont
own a domain name. You own the
right to use it."
http://www.latimes.com/wires/20001115/tCB00V0232.html
