I had a cursory look at the supporting documents for this. (http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/puntcat-cat-request-05oct11-en.pdf) In general, I think that the request moves practice in the right direction. However, I am somewhat concerned by the following language: "Law enforcement and trademark protection representatives will be granted full access to puntCAT database. An IP white list will be established to provide full access to gather all data associated with any concrete domain name." ("IP" clearly means "IP address" if you read the whole document.) A) What is a "trademark protection representative", and why are they granted equal access to the privacy-protected data of natural persons as law enforcement? B) Why can't they use the webform proxy for contacting the domain owner, or present a case to law enforcement for access if the owner is unresponsive? C) It also seems that both have the ability to troll thru the database at will for any purpose, without cause, judicial review or documenting when and why private information is accessed. D) Note that this ability is based on IP address - not an X.509 certificate, password or any other user-specific security mechanism. Hence is is susceptible to IP spoofing, and access is not traceable to the individual accessing the data. This makes it difficult (impossible?) to hold anyone accountable for misuse of these privileges. E) Also, disclosure is described as "opt-in (default option)" - as the following language in the document makes clear, privacy is not the default and must be requested. This is not consistent with maximizing privacy, and potentially introduces race conditions if establishing the privacy option is not atomic with registering a domain. For natural persons, privacy should be the default. Thus, although this is a positive step in the direction of protecting the privacy of natural persons, there is room for improvement. I leave to those more experienced in the politics of ICANN the political question of whether to take what's on offer now and fight the next battle later, or to raise these points in our comment on the current request. Timothe Litt ACM Distinguished Engineer --------------------------------------------------------- This communication may not represent the ACM or my employer's views, if any, on the matters discussed. -----Original Message----- From: NCSG-Discuss [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Wendy Seltzer Sent: Saturday, January 21, 2012 11:50 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [NCSG-Discuss] .CAT WHOIS Proposed Changes - call for public comments .CAT proposes to revise its Registry agreement to support withholding of some WHOIS data by individuals who opt out. It will not offer this opt-out to legal persons. I propose that NCSG support this amendment, with a simple: "NCSG supports the availability of WHOIS privacy options for natural persons. Accordingly, we support puntCAT's proposed amendment." --Wendy -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [council] .CAT WHOIS Proposed Changes - call for public comments Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:08:05 -0800 From: Glen de Saint Géry <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-20jan12-en.htm .CAT WHOIS Proposed Changes Forum Announcement: Comment Period Opens on Date: 20 January2012 Categories/Tags: Contracted Party Agreements Purpose (Brief): ICANN is opening today the public comment period for the Fundacio puntCAT's, request to change its Whois according to EU data protection legislation. The public comment period will be closed on 3 March 2012. The .cat registry, submitted a Registry Service Evaluation Process (RSEP) on August 2011. At this time, ICANN has conducted a preliminary review in accordance with the Registry Services Evaluation Policy and process set forth at http://www.icann.org/registries/rsep/rsep.html. ICANN's preliminary review (based on the information provided) did not identify any significant competition, security, or stability issues. The implementation of the request requires an amendment to the .cat Registry Agreement signed 23 September 2005. This public forum requests comments regarding the proposed amendment. Public Comment Box Link: http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/cat-whois-changes-18jan12-en.htm Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> http://gnso.icann.org