Privacy and Registration (fwd)

[Barbara Roseman]

Let me clarify my earlier reply:

yes, I believe companies use the WHOIS db to find competitors' customers
and solicit them, however I don't necessarily think this is a Bad Thing. I
just wanted to point out that it does happen.

I do think privacy options should be readily available for non-commercial
end-users with residential connectivity and I don't think we do enough as
a community to offer that option to our customers, but that is a different
discussion.

-Barb

On Thu, 18 Oct 2001, Shane Kerr wrote:

> On 2001-10-17 09:00:04 -0400, Jim Meck wrote:
> > Greetings.
> > General DBWG Items of Interest/Potential Contribution:
> > - Customer data protection, vulnerability, privacy, competition impact
> > - Data security, in transmission and at rest
> > - GLBA, HIPAA regulatory compliance
> > - Security policy capture, compliance, and enforcement mechanisms
>
> <snip/>
>
> > 2. My most pressing line of inquiry is in the area of vulnerability.
> > I have grave concerns over the competitive impact relating to the
> > unsecure submission and posting of customer information.  For many in
> > our DC client base, this is a non-starter.  What solutions or waivers
> > have been derived to address this issue?
>
> While I find the "privacy" issues of the ARIN database somewhat
> interesting, this is an angle that I hadn't really considered a problem.
> What problems do you expect to find?  Competitors cold-calling your
> customers based on contact information found in the Whois database?
>

Yes, this has actually happened to me. I get calls and snail mail all the
time from competitors to my current service (my company), especially
because we've been in the financial news recently. Wouldn't happen if the
information wasn't available. Competitors actively mine the swip archive
for exactly this kind of information.

-Barb

---
Barbara Roseman
Sr. Manager, FACT
Global Crossing
Office: +1 408-542-0147
Cell: +1 917-498-1677
broseman at gblx.net