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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.'"
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.
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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.)
i sold an old Mac laptop with system 7.5 to a girl for $200 with a printer about 7 years ago. She had little money, and for what she needed - a way to type homework in her dormroom and print it - $200 seemed reasonable - it did what she told me she wanted it to do, and she tested it at my place and everything worked just fine (2 cheers for Word 5.1 on system 7!). I made it clear that this was *not* an internet workhorse, and that if she wanted that, she needed to go to the bookstore and buy a new computer. "No no, i just want to type papers and print them in my dorm room".
So, of course, the first thing she did was attempt to install a bunch of new internet software (browsers, school's First Class server client) on it which of course didn't work. Then she took it to the school helpdesk, and they (rightly) had no idea what to do, so instead of telling her to get jammed, they screwed it up completely. So, she calls and says she wants to return it because it doesn't work. I'm like - yeah, what the hell do i want with a fscked up powerbook and printer? I don't want to buy it - i just sold it to you like two weeks ago.
time passes... and i start getting threatening emails from some guy on a yahoo account with ($myname)fucker@yahoo.com. Then he starts saying that he's going to come after my wife and hes watching her car when she comes home at night. That was fscking it. Its the girl's mental patient boyfriend.
Long story short - he was actually stalking whoever in the hell was in my old apartment - it was pure coincidence that the new tennants also owned a Honda Civic too.
Where, do you think, he got the address? Of course, from my whois entry when i didn't have any money to buy a PO Box.
Yeah, if you think i'll ever give out my information to my actual home or office location - ever - you've gone daisy, my son. ICANN and everyone else can demand all they want that my info be correct - but i don't answer to them, so they can kiss my ass.
In fact, because of this, a guy who started, then stole, the website of a non-profit (they've set the donations address to their address, but the actual non-profit is in Africa, so its hard for them to fight the problem) is going to be getting a legal foot up its ass because i know where he is and where he lives and his work address - all because he's broadcasted it in whois and on his webpage.
ICANN can't make me do anything.
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
Then why are you asking a question you think you know the answer to, if not that you think you're wrong? As it happens, you're VERY wrong. It's not the be-all-and-end-all of domain details, no, but it's very useful; for quickly finding out the status of a potential customer's domain, for finding out who owns an IP address that's exhibiting abuse, etc.
I have had a long dislike of whois.
For one it gives people a major way to steal domain names. People look up the domain name that they want in the public record, find the email address, and try to crack the email. If they can get the access to the email then more than likely the domain can be stolen. Then us poor techs get a call several months later from the true customer wondering what happened to their domain. Whois reveals too much information.
Secondly it isn't accurate. People see their name in whois and think that means they get to make decisions on the account/domain. Just because your name appears in whois does not mean you are listed on the account itself. But try explaining that to their ex-(terminated)-webmaster.
And lastly WhoIs is a major pain to explain. Try telling a paranoid customer that all domains appear in whois, and that you can't remove a domain itself from whois. My sup can't remove it from whois. The president of MegaDomainRegistrar can't remove it. Sorry, no, I don't have a phone number for ICANN. We can hide the info, but we can't make it disappear.
But then to be fair, I can't think of an alternative system to keep the domains and websites fair and accountable. Compaining to a registrar/webhoster about a domain/site is next to useless unless it is unquestionably illegal or definately a trademark issue. Most cases get shunted to the legal department which give the unhappy complaintant a copy of the AcceptableUsePolicy and asked to submit proof of infraction (yeah, good luck). Usually it takes a dedicated lawyer to get things done in these cases. So for now, whois stays.