FYI: Submitted as approved by the NCSG Policy Committee.
NCSG Statement on .cat proceeding
- To: cat-whois-changes@xxxxxxxxx
- Subject: NCSG Statement on .cat proceeding
- From: Robin Gross <robin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:31:29 -0800
The NCSG wishes to express its support for punctCAT's proposed amendment to
allow natural persons an opt-out measure by which some WHOIS data would be
withheld from public view.
At the same time, we do not believe the request offers the opt-out opportunity
broadly enough to satisfy all legitimate privacy needs. The NCSG believes there
are several types of institution that require similar opportunities to opt out
from public display of their identity and address details. Among those
institutional types are organizations that:
* protect natural persons,
* deal with political freedoms,
* deal with religious freedoms,
* deal with sexual preference and expression,
* deal with political minorities,
* deal with religious minorities, and parents' groups that deal with children's
activities such as sports teams, home-schooling and other childcare issues.
As the privacy of natural persons is protected within the EU Data Protection
Directive, political parties and minority speech are protected within the
privacy rules in other national laws. Given that gTLDs are global, it will be
important to take all national laws into account.
The NCSG further expresses concern that law enforcement and third party access
to the data should be consistent with due process protections. We urge
development of these disclosure procedures in conjunction with the Community.
- Robin Gross, NCSG Chair