IP address privacy policy killed
A proposal that would have brought the equivalent of domain name proxy registrations to IP addresses in North America has been dropped after its author had a chat with the FBI.
The policy would have allowed ISPs that take their IP addresses from ARIN, the American Regional Internet Registry, to substitute their own contact information in place of their customers’ details.
Proposing the policy, Aaron Wendel of WholesaleInternet.com initially said that the requirement to publish customer lists into a Referral Whois (RWHOIS) database “runs contrary to good business practices” and allows ISPs to poach each other’s customers.
Wendel publicly withdrew his proposal an hour ago at the ARIN meeting in Toronto, shocking some attendees.
He said he was doing so after a late-night session hearing the concerns of an FBI agent who is at the meeting, as well as conversations with members of ARIN staff.
The proposed policy had also been criticized by companies including Paypal, and many security experts.
RWHOIS allows any internet user to identify the user of an IP address in much the same way as Whois allows domain name registrants to be identified.
It is regularly used by law enforcement to track down spammers and other online crooks.
Unlike Whois, RWHOIS has a carve-out protecting residential users.
If you find this post or this blog useful or interestjng, please support Domain Incite, the independent source of news, analysis and opinion for the domain name industry and ICANN community.
Recent Comments