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Privacy Advocates Bemoan the Problems With WHOIS

An anonymous reader writes "The Globe and Mail is reporting that net privacy advocates are spurring ICANN into scrapping WHOIS. The advocates complain that the system doesn't do enough to protect domain owner information from spammers and fraudsters, and compare the problems to those being experienced on a broader scale by email users. 'WHOIS, much like e-mail, is an age-old Internet relic that comes from a time when the Internet was almost considered a network of trustworthy users. E-mail has, quite clearly, some massive problems coping in the modern age, but it's still here. It stands to reason, then, that WHOIS won't be going anywhere any time soon. Just like e-mail, it's prone to abuse. But again, just like e-mail, it's too useful to axe.'"

3 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Whois is useful? by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For what? These days, everybody is registering private domains through people like DomainsByProxy. Whois is becoming more and more useless. Might as well chuck it.

  2. Even "Heroes" agrees by Kelson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In one episode last season, Ando showed up at Niki's house, having been able to find her because she listed her home address on the WHOIS record for her website.

    (The unspoken moral: use a PO Box, or some guy from halfway around the world will drop in on you unexpectedly.)

  3. Re:stalker "found" me thanks to WHOIS by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wouldn't it be more likely that the stalker got your address from his girlfriend?
    Afterall you just said she came to your house to check out the computer.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper