[registrars] Registrar statement for law enforcement at ICANN this week

[Marcus Faure]

Hello,

CORE supports this statement.

Yours,
Marcus Faure
CORE Council of Registrars



> Hello All,
> 
> There are many representatives from the law enforcement community
> attending this ICANN meeting.
> 
> They raised a range of concerns about what might happen to WHOIS based
> on a recent decision at the GNSO Council.
> 
> I recommend that registrars sign on to the attached statement to send
> back in return.
> 
> This can be issued formally at the GNSO public forum tomorrow.
> 
> Please send an email to the list if you agree with the following.
> 
> Regards,
> Bruce Tonkin
> 
> 
> We the undersigned registrars wish to confirm that we will continue to
> collect the data (commonly called WHOIS data) as required by the
> registrar accreditation agreement (all of which is currently displayed
> to the general public), and will continue to provide access to such data
> by law enforcement through appropriate processes that support the
> privacy protection for the Personal Data of natural persons.
> Registrars store this information for the lifetime of their agreement
> with ICANN plus an additional 3 years.   Registrars are concerned that
> the current requirement for general public access to this information
> can cause problems for Personal Data of natural persons and this is an
> area of current work.
> 
> Registrars believe there should be more effective mechanisms than the
> current general public access mechanisms for legitimate access to
> Personal Data.   
> 
> Registrars further believe that protecting Personal Data from general
> public access may result in more accurate information being provided by
> registrants at the time of registration.
> 
> Registrars also note that other useful data such as the IP (Internet
> Protocol) address used by a registrant when registering a domain name
> and credit information is also stored.  This information is also
> available for law enforcement access through appropriate processes.   
> 
> IP (Internet Protocol) address information is perhaps the most useful in
> actually identifying parties of interest to law enforcement.  Please
> note that it is rare to find Personal Data of natural persons in the IP
> address WHOIS registries.   The IP address information can be used to
> identify the relevant Internet Service Provider (ISP) or
> telecommunications company responsible for the IP address through the IP
> (Internet Protocol) WHOIS services.  Law enforcement can then use
> existing legal processes to obtain the physical location of a computer
> connected to the Internet that may be hosting illegal content, or the
> physical location an internet user using this computer, through
> accessing ISP and telecommunications information that is not available
> for public access.
> 
> 
> 
>