We are getting some press interest in the privacy proxy issue.  I 
encourage you all to get people to sign on to the petition 
(savedomainprivacy.org) or send in comments.  Thanks to Cheapdomains, we 
have thousands of individual comments on the website now 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/comments-ppsai-initial-05may15/.  I thought 
I would share my comments to one of the journalists who was looking for 
a couple of the basic questions on the privacy proxy debate.
cheers
Stephanie Perrin

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	Re: Any comment on the domain registration furor?
Date: 	Wed, 24 Jun 2015 19:01:06 -0300
From: 	Stephanie Perrin <[log in to unmask]>
To: 	



I am a member of the non-commercial users constituency 
(NCUC)(www.ncuc.org) at ICANN, and I am a member of the PPSAI working 
group.

1.  The issue of prohibiting use of privacy/proxy services by 
registrants who engage in financial transactions on a website raises 
several issues for me:

  * many organizations which may be subject to discrimination and
    harrassment use proxy services for their domain registrations (eg. 
    religious, environmental, or political groups, women's groups such
    as rape crisis counselling, maternal health and women's education
    initiatives, charities and civil liberties groups, the list is very
    long).  Many of these groups accept donations, sell paraphernalia
    (mugs, tshirts etc) or generate advertising revenue.  Denying them
    privacy proxy services may put them at risk
  * ICANN's mandate is to deal with the domain name system. Inquiring as
    to what individuals and groups do once they get a website is
    somewhat outside of its remit.
  * Asking registrars or proxy services to determine what a registrant
    is going to (eventually) do with a domain name, is impracticable.

2.  The use of privacy/proxy services is necessary to protect certain 
fundamental human rights of registrants, notably privacy, freedom of 
expression, and the right to anonymous freedom of assembly.  Forcing 
registrants to place their confidential information, including phone 
numbers and addresses, puts them at risk and jeopardizes those rights.

3.  I was one of several civil society representatives on the working 
group. Please let me know if you wish to contact the others.
Kind regards, Stephanie Perrin