p2pnet - rss feed: Goodbye Whois?
p2pnet news | Freedom:- One of the Net’s oldest and most hallowed online institutions may be dumped because of concerns voiced by privacy advocates.
They want it shut down because, “they can’t agree with the people who use the system on how to give domain name owners more options when they register - such as designating third-party agents,” says Associated Press.
The threat of losing Whois would force serious negotiations before it happens, the story has Milton Mueller (right), a Syracuse University professor on the Whois working group saying:
“The sense of shock that would settle around certain people would be rapid and immediate.”
Privacy advocates say people shouldn’t have to reveal personal information to have a Web site, the story states, going on:
“The so-called ’sunset’ proposal is expected to come up Wednesday before a committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, a key Internet oversight agency.
“It will have a tough time winning approval — and could create chaos. But the fact that abandoning Whois is on the table underscores frustrations among privacy advocates that ICANN appears on the verge of launching new studies and deferring a decision yet again after some six years of debate.”
Law-enforcement officials and ISPs use Whois to “fight fraud and hacking. Lawyers depend on it to chase trademark and copyright violators,” lournalists rely on it to reach Web site owners, and “spammers mine it to send junk mailings for Web site hosting and other services,” says AP.
Meanwhile, Net users, “have come to expect more privacy and even anonymity,” the story says, going on requirements for domain name owners to provide such details, “also contradict some European privacy laws that are stricter than those in the United States”.
Adds AP:
“Approval of the sunset proposal, as drafted, would mean abolishing the current Whois requirements by late 2008. After that, individual registration companies would be able to decide whether to continue offering data on their customers, leading to gaps in the registration records.”
Also See:
Associated Press - Whois May Be Scrapped to Break Deadlock., October 29, 2007
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October 30th, 2007 at 6:20 am
Why not kill PING and TRACERT while were at it!
October 30th, 2007 at 8:14 am
“Why not kill PING and TRACERT while were at it!”
Firewalls do that.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:24 am
“Why not kill PING and TRACERT while were at it!”
Firewalls do that.
That was not the point! The point is, that this action is retarded. Whois, has been an important part of the net for a very long time.
I don’t see it going anywhere soon.
October 31st, 2007 at 7:50 am
WHOIS is how one finds out who is responsible for the actions taken by users of a domain. It won’t just “go away” without an alternative appearing.
November 3rd, 2007 at 9:53 am
I just started reading a “Guide to e business” for companies in Canada.
They have a link to privacy atc specifically for e-business operations:
[ http://www.privcom.gc.ca/information/guide_e.asp ]
The Relevant section:
What is not Covered by the Act?
* The collection, use or disclosure of personal information by federal government organizations listed under the Privacy Act
* Provincial or territorial governments and their agents
[b]* An employee’s name, title, business address or telephone number[/b]
* An individual’s collection, use or disclosure of personal information strictly for personal purposes (e.g. personal greeting card list)
* An organization’s collection, use or disclosure of personal information solely for journalistic, artistic or literary purposes
* Employee information — except in the federally-regulated sector
The bold being the data disclosed by the whois service.