Privacy advocates descend on proposed domain name change

I always lie glibly on the forms.

Order me to give out my real data and then blackmail me into a yearly fee to not publish it to abso-bastard-lutely everyone on the web? I think not.

Sub editors all on holiday?

'A proposal to force domain name owners to reveals their true identity'

'reveals' really, come on it's in the first line.

I might as well read The Guardian.

According to savedomainprivacy.org, "WHOIS contains contact information for small businesses, churches, individuals, even minor children."

Thanks for thinking about the children! But should they really be "engag[ing] in active commerce"??

Businesses and churches - are their names, PO boxes and phone numbers really that sensitive? You wouldn't find them in the phone book, or maybe even on their websites??

Privacy is for individuals. Companies and other organizations, need to be accountable.

It's called DotCom for a bloody reason.

As in Commercial domain, originally intended for businesses enguaged in commerce.

Since anyone & their dog's groomer's aunt's hairdresser's podiatrist's dead cat Wink's Medium can get a DotCom domain for the onorous price of the cost of lunch at the local rolling RoachCoach, that's obviously no longer true.

If you're not taking money from strangers in exchange for goods or services, aka an actual Commercial venture, then by all means keep your privacy. I don't care & don't need to know whom you are, since you don't have access to my financial data.

But if you ARE enguaged in Commerce, then you don't get to remain hidden anymore. I need to know you're a legit vendor whom has records on file where I can freely Copy+Paste them into the Police Report if need be. Not having to obtain an expensive Court Order to force a proxy service to reveal your data, but your data in full view of the public. If you're not willing to be open & up-front with us, then you don't deserve to be doing business with the public. That kind of shady marketer is typicly operating off the boot of the car in the alley behind the Stop-N-Rob at two A.M. with a call of "Pssst. Hey, wanna buy a stereo?"

If you're some persecuted bunch that needs money, there re reputable corporations out there that will collect on your behalf. You register with them to do the collecting, they put their corporate face/rep/ass on the line to do it. If they fuck over the people doing business with them then they have public identifying info that we can use to sue them. You get your cover of anonymity, you get donations, and we get someone whom can have the cops called on them for fraud.

And that's what it all boils down to. You may want to be anonymous, but you ALSO want to be doing business with the public. The Public has the Need/Right To Know whom they're doing business with, and that means real ID contact info for use in a call to the police to file a complaint. No real contact data means you aren't a legit place to do business.

Would you be willing to fork over your cash to the local Chemist if they wore a full face hood to hide their features, a voice masking warbler to make it impossible to identify them by theirs, and removed their address numbers off the front door to try & prevent you from knowing where you were doing business at in the first place?

Because that's what the anonymity of a proxy in the WhoIs data is accomplishing; the Chemist can change the name on the front door, change the hood colour, alter the timber of the voice, & beat the crap out of you for all your cash safe in the knowledge YOU can't ID them to the cops when you want to report it afterwards.

That's why if I intend to do business with someone & there's a proxy in the WhoIs, then I go elsewhere instead. Even if it's just a DBA line with a corporate street address as the WhoIs entry, that's what you list in the Court Filing to sue the shit out of them. A Proxy isn't the Business, and thus can tell you to go fuck yourself with those Filing forms.

Perhaps the whois record should list your ISP unless you are a corporate

Law enforcement can ask your ISP for personal contact details, joe public does not have access to your personal detail. This should be managed in a similar way to Uk electoral rolls.

I still believe that there should be some "live" contact number or email or similar in the event an administrator has to be contacted - this does not have to be personal - it just has to be monitored

Journalist Laurie Penny

I wonder why Journalist Laurie Penny thinks using her real name on Facebook will increase the risk of rape and death threats?

I quick google shows she writes in quite a few place on the web under her real name already!

e.g. http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/laurie-penny

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