Dude,
> I'm a little steamed. I just received an email from Network Solutions
> offering me a valuable new service: protection of my domain registration
> information from spammers. For the cost of just $5, my WHOIS contact
> information will be hidden so it can't be scraped by spammers and doesn't
> appear in the lists and exports they routinely create from the whois
> databases.
I own, or manage, about 6,000 domains. Yes, I got the same message
you did, from several domain registrars. I ignore it.
> A couple things about this really piss me off. First, NSI doesn't say
> explicitly, but it obvious during "checkout" on their site, that the cost is
> $5.00 PER DOMAIN.
Yes.
> Second, NSI claims on the "product" information for this "service" that
> "ICANN requires this personal information to be available for anybody to
> view on the web." If that is the case, then how is even possible for them
> to charge me to not make my personal information public.
ICANN does not make that claim. The whole idea of the contacts
is, however, so people can inquire about domain issues, so not
having a (public) address listed for a domain is silly. Making
the addresses private is something ICANN will probably try to
block from happening.
> This "service" seems like a gross abuse of the collected data and a complete
> breach of any ethics with respect to the handling of personal information
> associated with a domain registration.
>
> Am I being unreasonable about this?
A bit. NSI isn't known for their friendly service, or even correct
service. They *should* (and, did, I believe) protect the whois
info enough for *mass* harvesting systems to fail; I believe they
added the "type in the code you see above" stuff a while ago.
But, yeah, the service is bogus. Send a formal complaint to NSI,
stating just this, and copy it to ICANN.
--f
--
Fred N. van Kempen, DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) Collector/Archivist
Visit the VAXlab Project at http://VAXlab.pdp11.nl/
Visit the Archives at http://www.pdp11.nl/
Email: waltje_at_pdp11.nl BUSSUM, THE NETHERLANDS / Mountain View, CA, USA
Received on Thu Jan 08 2004 - 15:35:05 GMT