Demand for Domain Name Ownership Privacy Grows
A broad international coalition of business, human rights and other organizations is lobbying ICANN to allow the buyers of domain names to keep key information private. ICANN currently requires that mailing addresses, phone numbers and e-mail address and other information about domain name owners be disclosed through the Whois directory service. A draft letter to ICANN President Twomey supporting privacy has been signed by 50 organizations on six continents. Signers of the letter range from the U.S. Association for Computing Machinery to Privacy Ukraine. Two factors which may potentially complicate any ICANN decision on the privacy issue are: 1) concerns that the current Whois policy may violate European privacy laws; and 2) an order from the Bush Administration to improve the accuracy of the Whois database. ICANN has noted that they have convened a workshop on the Whois issue in June to attempt to "advance work on Whois in a coordinated and cooperative manner." ICANN will also "address accuracy and privacy issues, including data collection and verification measures, complaint procedures and investigatory methods for false information." at their meeting in Carthage. Although, ICANN has announced certain meetings on the Whois issue, their overall process for deciding on any changes to their policy, including the identities of decision-makers, their standards for acting, and the timetable for action remain unclear.