Namecheap.com, in association with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Fight For The Future (FFTF), launched the website Respectourprivacy.com to allow people to file a comment with ICANN letting them know they object to the proposed rule that would greatly restrict the use of privacy or proxy services on whois records of domain names.
ICANN public comment period closes on July 7th midnight UTC.
As of yesterday there were only 8 comments posted to the ICANN site.
Today there are 833.
The huge surge in filed comments seems to be due to a the that aforementioned website Respectourprivacy.com, which winds up submitting comment to ICANN objecting to the elimination of privacy for people who want to file an objection (comment) with ICANN.
Thousands of more comments are expected to be filed people though Respectourprivacy.com
Currently, domain owners can choose to use a privacy service to protect their personal information. Instead of your name, address, and other contact information appearing on the domain registration, the proxy’s information will appear instead.
ICANN estimates that about 20% of domains use privacy or proxy services to protect their information.
Private is often used for home-based registrants who don’t want their home addresses or other contact information made available to the public or don’t want to get spammed for a multitude of services.
However law enforcement has been urging ICANN to do away with privacy services in an effort to be able to see who the registrant of certain domain names are without having to get a court order as well as the trademark groups who want to be able to directly contact domain owners either to send C & D letters or lawsuits.
You can read about the proposed changes to the use of privacy changes here
You can see all submitted comments to ICANN here
If you want to submit a comment on the proposed rule change to ICANN you can use the Respectourprivacy.com system or you can file your own comment by emailing it to: comments-ppsai-initial-05may15@icann.org
You will get an email from ICANN asking you to confirm your comment. Unless you confirm your comment by following the instructions in the email you receive, your comment will not be posted, or considered, so you MUST confirm your comment.
If you do not confirm your comment by replying to ICANN your comment will NOT be posted or considered.
The ICANN email usually comes in shortly after you email your comment so make sure you check your spam or junk file if you don’t see the confirmation email from ICANN.
Chip, chip, chip – chipping away at any semblance of privacy we have left in literally every aspect of our lives. They’ll stop at nothing, it seems.