[arin-discuss] The joy of SWIPping

[Aaron Wendel]

Why is it always about SPAM?  Let me give you some other real examples:

Customer A rents a server for his Clan.  Clan A.  It's not a business so his
personal information with his home address gets put in the SWIP.  Clan B
gets ticked off at Clan A and sends someone over to the address in the SWIP
(since the domain was private) and threatens his life in front of his
family.  VERY angry customer calls me the next day demanding his info be
removed and threatening to sue for breach of privacy.

Customer B runs a political forum.  User A doesn't like what Customer B
posts so he starts sending death threats to Customer B's wife.  Domain is
private but there's actually a mistake in the SWIP info that shows up on the
address which makes it easy to figure out where User A got his info.
Customer B's wife is hysterical which causes Customer B to be very angry
with me.

I tried to tell both of these guys that I HAVE to do it because otherwise I
can't get new IPs and it HAS to be right because, after all, they might be
spammers but it just didn't fly.

Both of these examples really happened.  We lost both customers and the
police had to get involved.

One other question for everyone out there that's sort of related, How do you
reconcile posting customer information in a public database with your
privacy policy?

Aaron
 

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I guess what I would really like to know is what is so secretive and  
what is it exactly that these entities have to protect in terms of  
privacy that motivates them to not want their address listed?
I'd really prefer it if the SWIP address remained visible, as should  
all domain addresses be IMO.   But I, like the vast majority end up  
doing all we can to bend enough for a customer to get and or keep that  
customer.  The alternative, I've suggested customers that do not want  
to give out their name/address use a PO box.  Most companies have a PO  
separate from their business/mailing address.
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