I can understand the need for accurate information, however I think information like telephone number and email is not necessary for a public "whois" since it's only used for communication between registras. The decision of whether email and telephone should be viewable to public whois should be optional. Consider the fact of buying a home, information like social security number is necessary but it's not generally available to the public and you are protected by telephone solicitations by law and you can always get an unlisted number. You have far fewer rights and protections when it comes to domain names.
> Thursday, May 09, 2002, 2:10:52 PM, jyclee wrote: > > > speaking of whois information. Is it possible to add comments to your whois > > information? something like no solicitations! or actually remove contact > > information like your phone-number or email for "public view"? I have > > notice a slight problem with solicitations because I recently registered a > > domain name and in less than 3 days a call was placed to the contact > > information in regards to web design services. Because the domain was > > registered less than 3 days I was accused of selling customer information > > and that was a very awkward situation. > > You just need to patiently explain to the customer that the > publication of this data is mandated, and that it is how the system > works. That you do not sell their information, but, much like how it > is when they buy real estate here in the US, it is very easy for other > parties to get that information, and to follow it up with sales > materials, and that they do it without any contact with you > whatsoever. > > Buy a house these days, and watch the floods of mail come in. I know > when I was doing IT for Farmers Insurance in the late 80's and early > 90's it was a very popular method of solicitation. > > And here in the US, there is newly submitted legislation that would > make giving false information to a domain registrar a crime, with > harsh penalties attached. It's a stupid law, admittedly, but it is > not likely to meet a lot of opposition either, and it won't be the > first time Congress has passed a really stupid law (The DMCA comes to > mind). > > That said, while I disagree with making false information a crime, I > also do not support letting registrants hide whois information. > > I think it is a valuable tool, not only for network administrators but > for consumers. Just yesterday, for example, I was able to use whois > to determine that someone who was talking about how great their > product was on another mailing list was actually the owner of the > company thanks to the whois info on his domain name. > > -- > Best regards, > William X Walsh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > -- > OpenSRS installation and customizations > Payment Processing Integration > Apache Installation and Support Services > http://www.wxsoft.com/ > >
