Stalemate Continues on Hiding WHOIS Info

Computerworld - Proposed changes that would have shielded some of the personal information stored in the Internets WHOIS database from public view were indefinitely shelved last month, after a working group failed to reach agreement on how or even whether to implement the privacy reforms.

The stalemate among the 60-person working group, which had been set up by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to thrash out the differences over the proposed changes, was a setback for privacy advocates. But it was welcome news for companies and law enforcement agencies that depend on WHOIS information to go after phishers, cybersquatters, spammers and other online miscreants.

This is about confidence and trust in using the Internet, said Lynn Goodendorf, vice president of information privacy protection at InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (IHG), the Windsor, England-based owner of hotel chains such as Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza.

For Internet users, that means being able to confirm who is operating a particular Web site before conducting a transaction or interacting in some other way, said Goodendorf, who was a member of the now-disbanded working group.

She added that for IHG, the information in WHOIS plays an important role in efforts to track scammers who try to co-opt the companys brands. IHG uses three outside monitoring services to look for domain name registrations that include any of its brand names. On an average day, it gets about 100 alerts from the services, Goodendorf said.

Through WHOIS, Good­endorf said, IHG staffers can separate the 15% or so of the registrations that are legitimate  ones submitted by franchisees, for instance  from the 85% that are not. Then were able to take prompt action with cease-and-desist communications, she added.

WHOIS contains the names and contact information of people or organizations that register Internet domains, and the contents of the database can be read by anyone.

Privacy advocates have balked at the unfettered access, on the grounds that it could expose people to spam and unwanted surveillance. For years, they have called on ICANN to adopt new rules that would enable Web site owners to avoid having their names and street addresses published in the database.

But opponents of the proposed changes contend that maintaining the status quo on storing and accessing data in WHOIS will serve the greater Internet good.

The debate is a basic disagreement about the relative rights of a tiny minority of Internet users versus [those of] all of the Internet users who have to deal with the mischief that some domain registrants do, said John Levine, co-founder of the Domain Assurance Council in Trumansburg, N.Y.