Before discusing the current proposal any further, I am eager to have denis
clarify two rather remarkable comments that he's already/previously made
here. Each of these comments remain altogether troubling. I've already
asked denis to either clarify or amend these comments, but so far he hasn't.
https://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail/archives/db-wg/2022-June/007473.html
Comment #1:
denis> Some telecom companies enter hundreds of thousands of customer details
denis> into the RIPE Database including personal names and addresses.
rfg> Really? Name two.
This alleged "fact" (regarding certain as yet unnamed telecoms) is one basis
that denis has used as a justification for the present proposal. Thus, I do
believe that it is reasonable to inquire if it is actually true or not.
So far, denis has offered no evidence that it actually is.
Comment #2:
rfg> So now, why don't you re-submit this proposal and instead propose
rfg> that *all* mailing address information, including even the country
rfg> name, be redacted from the data base for *all* members?
denis> It will be optional.
I have already and repeatedly expressed my deep and earnest concern that
the present proposal will by no means be the end of these efforts to
render the WHOIS data base less complete and thus less useful. For
his part, denis has suggested that I am being unduly pessimistic or
unduly alarmist.
The above comment would seem to put the lie to that assertion. The real
and true goal, as denis himself is accurately quoted (above) as saying
is that *all* location information for *all* categories of members, both
natural persons and others, will henceforth become "optional" right down
to even the identification of the home country.
I feel quite certain that cybercriminals throughout the RIPE region will
be dancing in the streets (and making champagne toasts to denis) if in
fact it becomes a mater of RIPE policy that even the identification of
the countries where their shell companies are incorporated become
"optional" disclosures vis a vis the public WHOIS.
More to the point, it would seem that this fetish for secrecy and non-
transparency has already metastasized beyond what was originally being
sold to us as just a way to help the handful of natural persons in the RIPE
region who are too dumb to help themselves, e.g. by renting a P.O. box.
So I believe that I am right to ask: What's next? What else is going to
be quitely disappeared from the data base, and from public view, before
this obsession runs its full course?
Regards,
rfg
--
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, get a password reminder, or change your
subscription options, please visit:
https://lists.ripe.net/mailman/listinfo/db-wg
