Oct, 2003 : ICANN Urged By Consumer Groups to Safeguard Privacy

📅 October 30, 2003 - More than 50 consumer and civil liberty organizations urged ICANN (icann.org) president Paul Twomey to limit the use of the WHOIS database to its original purpose ? resolving technical network issues ? and to establish strong privacy protection standards, in a letter sent Tuesday.

The signatories said in the letter that the WHOIS database violates a domain name holder's right to privacy and freedom of expression by exposing personal information such as phone numbers, e-mail and mailing addresses.
"The original purpose for WHOIS should be re-established. The WHOIS database was originally intended to allow network administrators to find and fix problems to maintain the stability of the Internet," the letter read. "It now exposes domain name registrants' personal information to many other users for many other purposes unrelated to network access. Anyone with Internet access can now have access to WHOIS data, and that includes stalkers, governments that restrict dissidents' activities, law enforcement agents without legal authority, and spammers."
The signatories to the letter represent 21 countries and include the American Liberty Association, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, the Consumer Project on Technology (U.S.) and the United Kingdom's Foundation for Information Policy Research.
ICANN's formal agreement with domain name registrars currently states that "Any Registered Name Holder that intends to license use of a domain name to a third party is nonetheless the Registered Name Holder of record and is responsible for providing its own full contact information and for providing and updating accurate technical and administrative contact information."
ICANN is currently meeting in Carthage, Tunisia to discuss the WHOIS database.
Domain Registrar Go Daddy (godaddy.com 👉 Total Reviews: 81
🙌 Average Rating: 3.2 / 10
👍 Good Reviews: 22
👎 Bad Reviews: 59
👈 Official Responses: 0) released a privacy tool in January that conceals private information for a $9.95 fee.