Reply to post:

Whois? More like WHOWAS: Domain database on verge of collapse over EU privacy

Alister

On the other side of the equation, civil society groups were actually happy with the idea of anonymized email addresses, noting that it would "go a long way to reducing spam and harassment that end-users face."

This again is an issue only due to ICANN's decision to try and monetize the data they hold.

Up untill a few years ago, it wasn't worth the effort for a spammer to manually trawl through whois records for email addresses, and the level of spam to my admin email accounts for our domains was minimal.

However, then ICANN decided to publicise a list of any changes to whois records or domain registrations, including contact details, and now, I get over 100 emails a week offering me SEO services or "Build You a website" or other shit.

The abuse and domain admin emails for domain registrations should not be obscured, they should be readliy available to anyone who needs to look them up using the whois system.

But they shouldn't be published as an easily farmable list, everytime there's a change in any domain registration, and that's what is happening now.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon