[Cialug] ICANN Has Cheezburger

[Matthew Nuzum]

It has been standard policy since the beginning of Internet Time to
publicly show contact information for all domain owners. I get an email
like this once per year for every domain I own, asking me to confirm my
contact info is correct. It looks like they've just taken things to the
next level by doing some validation and cleanup on it.

This could be ICANN giving domain registrars a little help selling their
domain privacy packages.

Frankly, having my contact info on the whois records generates very very
little spam. Once in a while (maybe twice a year) I get people asking me to
buy my domain or to sell me a related domain name. It's usually not an
automated email. I'd say you're probably more likely to get spam by sending
an email to this mailing list than through the contact info on your domain
registration.

As a benefit, two or maybe three times in 15 years I've found out about a
security problem on one of my servers because someone was kind enough to
contact me through whois info to tell me about it. I also did sell an
unused domain for a nice profit the same way.

Google has stated that using SSL (really TLS) on your site will positively
affect your search engine ranking soon. Since SSL/TLS certificates contain
verified contact information you'll probably soon be pondering this same
situation again. Unlike whois, which is easy to fake contact info, the cost
(and value) of the SSL/TLS cert is 100% tied to the ability to verify your
identity and contact information. Goodbye anonymity!


On Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 10:04 AM, Todd Walton <tdwalton at gmail.com> wrote:

> I registered a new domain name a month ago, and today I got this:
>
> ==============================
> As of January 1, 2014, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
> Numbers (ICANN) has mandated that all ICANN accredited registrars begin
> verifying the WHOIS contact information for all new domain registrations
> and Registrant contact modifications.
>
> The following change has been made to the Registrant contact information
> for one or more of your domains and requires verification:
>
>   Name Todd Walton
>   Address 1 <my address>
>   Address 2
>   City DES MOINES
>   State Province IA
>   Postal Code 50314
>   Country US
>   Email Address <my email>
>
> Please click the link below to verify the Registrant email address.  You
> have 5 days remaining to verify the Registrant contact information to avoid
> the domain(s) from being suspended.
> ==============================
>
> And apparently it's for real:
>
> https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-specs-2013-09-17-en#whois-accuracy
>
> I'm not sure I see the value (except to spammers) of publicly displaying
> the contact info of a registrant, but I guess I'm not a supreme Internet
> overlordulous wizardly type.
>
> --
> Todd
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> Cialug at cialug.org
> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
>



-- 
Matthew Nuzum
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