I tend to agree with Kim.

There is a valid reason for a publicly available whois service. There are
legitimate reasons why the owner of a name should be easily identifiable.

By and large names are for the use of businesses, and privacy for businesses
is an entirely different thing to individuals. I would think that hiding
email addresses for individuals has merit, but a business is another matter.


To some degree, visibility and the resulting spam is a cost of being a
business with a publicly visible domain name. After all, if you don't want
to be contacted, what is the point of having the name in the first place?
(yes, I know - there are many other reasons). The point is, if you have a
domain name for your company and you have a website, most likely you publish
contact details. Spam is a scourge, we all agree, but it's a 'cost' of
having an email address. If you don't want spam that badly, don't use email.

.AU deliberately removed telephone numbers and address details as these were
deemed unnecessary, but email details remained in whois as the least
compromising contact details to provide. I am not aware of widespread abuse
of the email addresses published in .au whois. 

Larry

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kim Davies [mailto:kim§centr.org] 
> Sent: Wednesday, 6 April 2005 9:12
> To: dns§dotau.org
> Subject: Re: [DNS] Whois & Privacy
> 
> 
> Mike wrote:
> > Did you look at the link or read any of the case studies Kim? Your 
> > idea of privacy isn't everyones..
> 
> I looked at them when that site was first published, and I have just 
> re-skimmed them. They seem to centre on things like 
> publishing your home 
> address. You can't find someone's home address, or telephone 
> number, in 
> the .au WHOIS.
> 
> In .au, all that is exposed is a contact email address. If you are so 
> freaked out that a someone might attack you by giving you a 
> heart attack 
> by sending you a craftily written email, well, perhaps you are better 
> off not using the Internet.
> 
> I can't think of how the attack vectors described where 
> people can come 
> and brutally murder you in the night, or charge to your 
> credit cards by 
> hiding in your letter box, yell at your ex-wife etc, have any 
> relevance 
> at all to .au.
> 
> Can you explain? I must be slow.
> 
> How are .au's WHOIS privacy arrangements so woefully 
> inadequate as you 
> have claimed? As I said, in my experience they are some of 
> the tightest 
> in the world and represent a good balance between privacy and 
> the public 
> good, but obviously you see differently.
> 
> kim
> 
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