Monday, August 23, 1999, 4:43:57 AM, Planet Communications Computing Facility
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The existence or non existence of a provision and it's application is
> not relevant here. What is at issue is the right to incorporate privacy
> law into icann at an oportune time - NOW.
But it is the existence and application of provisions that you have
been using to justify why such a policy is needed.
As was already pointed out by Roberto, any can login using any name
and email address (and anyone can get any number of free email
addresses - I should know I run a free email service). No one is
checking IDs or verifying identities (though there are some who would
like to see this happen in order to get rid of the "JW" club). It is
merely a contact address, and a name the person will be known as.
This is a lot more privacy protection than most government run forums
provide, where a voter registration, or state issued ID card is
required to be presented, logged, and noted.
In other words, it's a non-issue.
Tell your people to sign-in as Jeffrey A. Williams III or some such
moniker, and I'll even give them a free email alias @inegroup.net to
further protect their anonymity.
While you are at it, tell them to make sure to connect through some
sort of proxy server setup to the IRC server, since after all, the IRC
logs will be able to record what IP address and internet provider they
are using to connect.
The point of this is that there is privacy, and then there is privacy.
How far you take it has to be situational, and if it is that important
to you, as an individual, there are things you can do, as an
individual, to protect it. But if you want to be counted, and have a
voice, you can expect to have to be identified.
If that's not a concern for the people you are speaking for, then they
can go get free email aliases at any of a plethora of places (I can
provide references to over 200) and login with any damn name they
choose. They can even us one of the anonymizing web proxies to login
at the berkman center webpage so that the webserver doesn't log their
IP Address (but as I said, this will not work with the IRC Server, and
would require a special proxy be setup).
Sheesh, if it is that much of an issue I'LL setup the proxy for your
users to utilize.
Privacy and anonymity are personal issues, best left out of policy
discussions. The participants can decide for themselves what level of
privacy they need/want to exercise, and take the limited available
participation options that come with them as a result.
--
William X. Walsh - DSo Internet Services
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fax:(209) 671-7934
Editor of http://www.dnspolicy.com/
(IDNO MEMBER)
Support the Cyberspace Association, the
constituency of Individual Domain Name Owners
http://www.idno.org
