5 ms·

I wonder if it's time to stop requiring address and phone number information in the WHOIS information. Unless registrars are required to verify it with a confi

by jewel 12y ago

I wonder if it's time to stop requiring address and phone number information in the WHOIS information. Unless registrars are required to verify it with a confirmation letter and phone call, there isn't much guarantee that the information will be accurate anyway. The Internet isn't the nice place that it used to be, and I literally have never gotten anything but spam snail mail letters for my domains. Perhaps we could even drop the email, and suggest that every domain monitor the abuse@ domain in order to receive DMCA requests, etc. If the abuse account isn't monitored, DMCA requests can be sent to the owner of the IP address block, which seems to be a popular approach anyway. (For those who have never tried it, try doing a WHOIS on an IP address to get the WHOIS records for several layers of IP block ownership. This is a use case where contact information makes a lot more sense, as these blocks are going to be owned by businesses where there'd be no point to guarding privacy.)

Tomdarkness 12y ago
I like the approach taken by Nominet (.uk domain registry). If you are an individual and you're not trading via your website you can hide your personal details from whois. However, companies and trading individuals have to display it.
- pavel_lishin 12y ago
  I think most registrars offer a way to "hide" your whois data; I think the problem here is that this "hidden" data leaked anyway.
  - Tomdarkness 12y ago
    Sorry, made a typo. Nominet are not a registrar, they are the domain registry for .uk domains. Similar to how Verisign are the registry for .com domains.
freehunter 12y ago
But if addresses were not required in whois, how would registrars sell their whois privacy plans?
mox1 12y ago
Unfortunately ICANN (acting on the wishes of Law Enforcement) enacted exactly the opposite policy in 2013, requiring verification of certain WHOIS information*. [1] https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-specs-2013-09-17-en?routing_type=path#whois-accuracy https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-specs-20...
- adventured 12y ago
  A lot of people still don't realize that not having accurate WHOIS information is a fast way to lose your domain in the case of a dispute (either with another party or the registrar).
  - larrys 12y ago
    Depends on the registrar. As a registrar I can tell you that we would bend over backwards before allowing a domain to go this route. Also there is very little practically that prevents a registrar from putting in valid whois info (event their own info) and holding the domain on ice until the registrant shows up (if they want to for some reason that is). There is nominal carry cost vs. the aggravation of doing the wrong thing. And there are cases where no whois info at all appears and ICANN is ok with that. There is a domain that I am trying to get now for someone that is at godaddy. The registrant (fearing a UDRP) told godaddy to delete the domain. Godaddy didn't do that they removed the name from whois so "no match" appears. Not kosher but they do that and ICANN doesn't seem to mind. They will wait 30 days and then sell it to us for $24 backorder fee. To me that makes more sense time wise then taking it up with ICANN (and I have high level contacts at that organization that I can tap but for $24 why bother?) Back to the issue of invalid info. Typically the process would start with someone filing the complaint form with ICANN. Then we get notified by ICANN and get time to fix the problem. De facto, we can populate the whois with whatever we want and reply back to ICANN "problem fixed". ICANN will then reply back to the person who filed the complaint "problem fixed" (to simplify things). Can't vouch for what others may do, this is what we have seen happen.
    - fapjacks 12y ago
snowwrestler 12y ago
I'm sympathetic to this point of view, but then I think: for decades the owner's name, address, and phone number for almost every house and business in America was listed in public phone books that were distributed, for free, to almost every single house and business in each respective area. Sometimes it can seem like all our privacy is disappearing, but I think it's worth remembering the how some personal data has been public for years, and things were generally ok.

by jewel 12y ago

Tomdarkness 12y ago

I like the approach taken by Nominet (.uk domain registry). If you are an individual and you're not trading via your website you can hide your personal details from whois. However, companies and trading individuals have to display it.

pavel_lishin 12y ago
I think most registrars offer a way to "hide" your whois data; I think the problem here is that this "hidden" data leaked anyway.
- Tomdarkness 12y ago
  Sorry, made a typo. Nominet are not a registrar, they are the domain registry for .uk domains. Similar to how Verisign are the registry for .com domains.

freehunter 12y ago

But if addresses were not required in whois, how would registrars sell their whois privacy plans?

mox1 12y ago

Unfortunately ICANN (acting on the wishes of Law Enforcement) enacted exactly the opposite policy in 2013, requiring verification of certain WHOIS information*. [1] https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-specs-2013-09-17-en?routing_type=path#whois-accuracy https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-specs-20...

adventured 12y ago
A lot of people still don't realize that not having accurate WHOIS information is a fast way to lose your domain in the case of a dispute (either with another party or the registrar).
- larrys 12y ago
  Depends on the registrar. As a registrar I can tell you that we would bend over backwards before allowing a domain to go this route. Also there is very little practically that prevents a registrar from putting in valid whois info (event their own info) and holding the domain on ice until the registrant shows up (if they want to for some reason that is). There is nominal carry cost vs. the aggravation of doing the wrong thing. And there are cases where no whois info at all appears and ICANN is ok with that. There is a domain that I am trying to get now for someone that is at godaddy. The registrant (fearing a UDRP) told godaddy to delete the domain. Godaddy didn't do that they removed the name from whois so "no match" appears. Not kosher but they do that and ICANN doesn't seem to mind. They will wait 30 days and then sell it to us for $24 backorder fee. To me that makes more sense time wise then taking it up with ICANN (and I have high level contacts at that organization that I can tap but for $24 why bother?) Back to the issue of invalid info. Typically the process would start with someone filing the complaint form with ICANN. Then we get notified by ICANN and get time to fix the problem. De facto, we can populate the whois with whatever we want and reply back to ICANN "problem fixed". ICANN will then reply back to the person who filed the complaint "problem fixed" (to simplify things). Can't vouch for what others may do, this is what we have seen happen.
  - fapjacks 12y ago

snowwrestler 12y ago

I'm sympathetic to this point of view, but then I think: for decades the owner's name, address, and phone number for almost every house and business in America was listed in public phone books that were distributed, for free, to almost every single house and business in each respective area. Sometimes it can seem like all our privacy is disappearing, but I think it's worth remembering the how some personal data has been public for years, and things were generally ok.