Fergie's Tech Blog

Editorial: ICANN's WHOIS Policy Shift Would Be Criminal Negligence

Mark Hall writes on ComputerWorld:

There’s a move afoot to help criminals obscure their illegal online activities. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is considering making it possible for anyone to avoid putting Web site ownership and contact information into the Internet’s WHOIS database.

This seemingly minor change to the already loose requirements for Web site registration is being advocated by an unholy alliance of privacy ideologues, primarily in the European Union, and greedy Internet service providers. The former group argues that the less that is known about a Web site owner, the better that person’s rights are protected. The ISPs supporting the change see it as a way to generate more business, though most of it is likely to be from crooks who, ironically, rip off Internet users by violating their privacy.

posted by Fergie @ 8/13/2007 09:37:00 AM