PRIVACY POLICY?
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James Joyner | Tuesday, May 6, 2003 |
Joy notes that Boycott Hollywood appears to have complied with the information policy of their domain registrar and provides a link to WHOIS where one can look up the registration information on anyone who owns a site. Given the problems we’re having with identity theft and privacy in general, one would think this information would be password protected or otherwise inaccessible to the public. Alas, such is not the case. . . .
Update (16:14): Via e-mail correspondence with Boycott Hollywood administration, I have learned that they actually had provided the correct info to WHOIS from the beginning and only changed it quite recently in response to threatening letters. Fortunately, the current information showing in WHOIS is not actually “them” but info from their future hosting company, so all are safe at the moment. An interesting learning experience all around–as Joy notes in the Comments, very few people understand how accessible this info is.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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Indeed. Being able to get one's phone number and mailing address is a bit much, IMHO.
Agreed. I think it should be available upon court order and understand the need for that. But having it up for anyone to see is just wrong. Ironically, it's one advantage of blog*spot--all their sites are registered to one guy.
See, I hate to say it, but this an important fact that a good number of people didn't understand in last week's big debate.
WHOIS information is public and if you're a private citizen who is creating a Web site, your options are limited in how you can obscure yourself. The most popular method I've seen is someone taking out a PO Box and using a Yahoo account. In a recent example, Hollywoodhalfwits.com actually is registered as an LLC and the LLC address is used in the WHOIS. I thought that was kinda clever.
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