Opinions, Please, on WHOIS vs. Privacy?
There's an ICANN working group discussing aspects of WHOIS now, with the idea of possible reform, at least in areas within ICANN's reach.
In essence, as you know, the issues at stake are privacy and (or vs.) accountability, and to a lesser degree, in my opinion, free speech. One argument is that WHOIS is harmful to privacy because the databases make a fair amount of information about domain ownership public and available, exposing people to spam, etc. Conversely, without WHOIS, law enforcement and others would have a tough time tracking down criminals and other Web fraudsters. (A secondary issue is that a lot of the WHOIS data is somewhat useless anyway, or needs to be organized better, though new Web client applications have helped).
My argument for consumers would be rather reductive, saying that though the privacy of Web site operators and domain owners is important, the need for consumers at large (and law enforcement working on their behalf) to have means to investigate wrongdoing outweighs the privacy concern. In the course of WebWatch's work, we have used WHOIS to make determinations about whether Web sites are possibly fraudulent or operate offshore and outside basic redress mechanisms. WHOIS data isn't all that great, but it's better than nothing.
We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think. Post here or email me.