ICANN's Whois privacy reforms stalled again
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A move to devise privacy policies for ICANN that might shield information on people who register domains has stalled for now, continuing a long-running stalemate  on reforms to the way the WHOIS database is handled.
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The U.S. government is loosening its grip on the domain name system and is edging closer to giving ICANN -- the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers -- a greater measure of autonomy in making decisions about the future of the Internet.
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Should they call it something else? Six months after the government announced it would review whether data protection laws were a "barrier" to its information sharing plans, it is still not ready to share its views on the matter.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers opened a week-long meeting on Monday where it will address critical issues like new generic top level domains, internationalized domain names and the organization's efforts to become more accountable and transparent. The international public meeting, the second of three of its kind ICANN has planned for this year, will also include discussions about a major expansion of available Internet Protocol addresses, as well as about the process for accrediting registrars. Taking advantage of the meeting's venue in San Juan, Puerto Rico , the agenda also includes the first General Assembly of the Latin American and Caribbean Regional At Large Organization, formed in March. "We're very pleased to be in Puerto Rico," said Paul Twomey, ICANN's president and CEO, during a press conference at the Caribe Hilton hotel, adding that the meeting's agenda is full of significant issues and efforts. ICANN oversees the Internet's address system and as such carries the critical responsibility of ensuring the overall security and stability of the Internet. A key effort ICANN is involved with is improving the transparency of its operations and the accountability of its decisions, areas critics regularly complain about. "We must ensure we're in the leading edge of transparency and accountability," Twomey said. ICANN commissioned an independent study about its transparency and accountability in December from London's One World Trust, which reported its findings in March. It concluded that ICANN is a very transparent organization but that it can improve certain areas, including explaining better how it uses input from stakeholders when making decisions. ICANN has been taking steps to address these issues and, earlier this month, issued a response to the report. On Saturday, ICANN released for discussion at the San Juan meeting online a set of draft principles and frameworks for accountability . ICANN wants to improve making it easier for people to find the vast amount of information on its Web site, Twomey said. ICANN also wants to be faster in posting information online about its meetings and initiatives, he said. However, the transparency and accountability issue will likely remain on the table until ICANN removes its special ties to the U.S. government. Since its creation in 1998 to progressively absorb Internet management functions until then handled fully by the U.S. government, ICANN has been criticized for lacking transparency in its decision-making process and for responding disproportionately to U.S. interests. In September, the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. Commerce Department and ICANN was renewed for three additional years, a disappointment for those who had hoped for ICANN's full autonomy. Also in this week's agenda is the Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) initiative, which aims to revamp the DNS (domain name system) so that it can support domain names in a broad range of languages and alphabets that can't be represented via the ASCII character set. "You'd think this would be simple. It has turned out to be really hard, technically," said Vint Cerf, ICANN's chairman. Another initiative on deck for discussion is the drafting of a policy to introduce new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) to add to the well-known ones like .com and .net. Like the IDN effort, this gTLD project has run into technical challenges. The meeting will also feature a tutorial on the IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) effort to expand significantly the amount of IP addresses, because of the expected shortage under the current IPv4, Cerf said. The San Juan meeting, ICANN's 29th International Public Meeting, ends Friday and will feature more than 30 sessions and workshops.
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For the first time in two years, the guarantor of internet privacy abruptly terminates a company's right to display the TRUSTe seal -- without saying why. Privacy advocates say consumers deserve details.
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The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has given preliminary approval to two new domain names. The &quot;.
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TechWeb - AskEraser will provide Ask users with privacy controls that will prevent their searches from being retained on the company&#39;s servers.
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The Internet registrar is being criticized for its practice of putting holds on domain names that searchers on its site may not look for but not immediately register, although it since has backed down.
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NEW YORK -- The Internet's key oversight agency is investigating suspicions that insider information is being used to snatch desired domain names before an individual or business can register them.
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Facebook.com, the No. 2 U.S.   social network site that is quickly expanding beyond its   college student base, has been met with a sudden privacy   backlash by users after it made design changes this week.
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Despite complaints of secrecy and biased decision making leveled against the organization that handles domain name policies, the U.S. Commerce Department says ICANN works and renews its oversight agreement.
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After over two months of availability, access to Wikipedia's English-language site once again appears to be blocked for China-based users.
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A company that sells Internet domain names is facing criticisms for holding some in reserve as a consumer-protection measure, a move that also prevents interested parties from shopping around for better prices.
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Privacy and civil rights advocates are weighing in on the ruling by a California judge to shut down the entire Wikileaks domain, and they're not impressed with the logic or the judge's understanding of the Net.
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ALBANY, N.Y. - New York state officials on Friday froze portions of a state Web site that identity thieves could have used to access the Social Security numbers of some New Yorkers - including billionaire developer Donald Trump.
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Government oversight? What government oversight! Internet overseeing organisation ICANN will become an autonomous body, free from any form of government control, on 1 October 2008, if plans drawn up between it and the US government go according to plan.â¦
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The Bush administration's new privacy guidelines fail to protect the rights of Americans, and the board created to guarantee those rights lacks the independence to do the job, civil libertarians told the White House privacy board yesterday at its first public forum.