US and EU Clash Over Whois Data 67
itwbennett writes "ICANN wants to store more data (including credit card information) about domain name registrations in its Whois database, wants to hold on to that data for two years after registration ends, and wants to force registrant contact information to be re-verified annually — moves that are applauded by David Vladeck, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. The E.U.'s Article 29 Working Group is markedly less enthusiastic, saying ICANN's plans trample on citizens' right to privacy."
Solution (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, I guess I'll have to get a temporary phone number, address AND anonymous "gift card" credit card now for my domain now
Time for the anti UN comments... (Score:5, Insightful)
Time for the anti UN comments, as usual around here. But how can you defend the USA on this case?
(My .uk domain's public whois looks like this:
Registrant:
[My real name]
Registrant type:
UK Individual
Registrant's address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their
address omitted from the WHOIS service.
And that's the way I like it!)
Why would this get rid of spam? (Score:5, Insightful)
That makes no sense, because many people can and routinely do send e-mail from the same domain.
This move is fairly directly contrary to the basic rules of privacy in the EU, and after the negative press that European governments have had over things like airline passenger and banking information recently, I don't see this getting very far. There's no compelling "fear the terrorists" or "catch the tax evaders" kind of argument with popular appeal here. The US authorities have no need to know my credit card number, and certainly no need to keep it for years, assuming it's even still valid by that time.
Re:Want to get rid of spam or not? (Score:5, Insightful)
How could this possibly stop spam? Most spam comes from botnets anyway, which are going through their companies and/or ISPs mail server. The last thing a spammer would do is use a proper domain.
Make It Private (Score:3, Insightful)
I personally don't mind having legitimate data associated to domains I own, but I don't like that my name, address, phone number, and email address is visible to everyone. I don't really think ICANN needs my credit card number, but it seems like just making only, say, the name, available publicly would be a better first step.