If you’ve registered any Web domains for your small business, there’s a potential privacy policy change of which you should be aware.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is considering changing a policy involving WHOIS, a database of personal information for those who register domain names.
Currently, domain owners can choose to use a privacy service to protect their personal information. So, instead of your name, address, and other contact information appearing on the domain registration, the proxy’s information will appear instead. But now, ICANN is considering doing away with these privacy services altogether. The reason behind these proposed changes is to make it easier for those dealing with legal or infringement issues to contact the offending party.
There’s also a public comment proceeding to obtain community input on the Initial Report from the GNSO‘s Policy Development Process Working Group on issues relating to the accreditation of privacy and proxy service providers. Anyone can submit comments about the proposal to ICANN. Comments close on July 7.