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Verisign - RAPE

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by lorna cole

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RAPE!! That is what I call the sale of personal information by Verisign to third parties. It is a crime of the highest order for this, of all bodies, to participate in such practice. The owner's automatic consent is buried deep in legal jargon and documentation. To top this off, the owner may only opt-out via e-mail. Hey, all women love to be raped unless they expressly say otherwise. This nullifies all other privacy policies on the World Wide Web which protects personal information (including techrepublic's). The minute you sign up for a domain name, your personal info is up for grabs.

7 replies

by generalist

I agree that Verisign's actions are marginal to say the least. Perhaps if enough people complained, perhaps even resorting to mild spam, they would change their privacy policies. (Two or three e-mails a day from every domain owner in the world would make an impact.)

One approach to counter the invasion of privacy is to use alternative addresses like post office boxes and unlisted phone numbers. For a relatively small price you can put a layer of privacy between you and the database users.

Heck, if you got a group of people together and had a special phone number set up for the 'official phone' you wouldn't even be able to trace things back with a reverse directory.

It might work rather well.

(Support database corruption as away to protect privacy! Join the John and Mary Doe club!)

by lorna cole

True, everybody knows that anonimity can be achieved quite easily on the Net but it is the Principle of the Matter. EVEN if I choose to be John Smith or Jane Doe at P.O. Box No.983, this information should not be used as a commodity to be traded at will for any reasons unless I expressly consent to it. In any case, how do you remain anonymous when your credit card number is provided? Registration of domain names is a totally different ball game from registering for a hotmail address.

by generalist

Unfortunately, you're right about the credit card number link.

I suspect that the privacy issue will eventually be decided in court when some company royally blows it and is involved in an identity theft or credit card fraud problem involving millions of people. At that point one good class action suit would bring the 'personal information commodity' market to a halt and create a huge demand for additional security.

Personally I consider private information to be something that a companyshouldn't distribute. And since I know that businesses are always looking for ways of making profits, I try to avoid those companies that have 'free membership discount cards' like Safeway and Rite-Aid.

Of course, I realize that I'm not consistent in this area. But I tell lots of people that is one of the reasons I don't shop at certain stores.

by eltoncole

...because they are so lethargic.

But Congress is actually looking into bills protecting user data.

by generalist

Recent bills in Washington State have been introduced to stop using the Social Security Number for student IDs. Then because a hot topic after a teacher at a university used a number of them to obtain credit cards.

Oddly enough, I remember talking about the SSN problem back in the mid-1970s. Theoretically the government, and other organizations aren't supposed to use the SSN for anything outside of communicating with the IRS and Social Security. Using it as part of an ID is not good, especially when a PC can counterfeit checks and other things.

Perhaps the controversy of the sale of user data could work with the use of SSNs and improve privacy all over.

by lorna cole

Hang on guys, all may be well (albeit slow) in the US of A but what about the Rest of the World? Remember, domain name registrations are on a global basis. But I guess if the US have stringent privacy laws then everybody else can commence a suit there if their privacy is violated by Verisign. The US courts would have sufficient jurisdiction, wouldn't they?

by generalist

They might not have jurisdiction. International law can be strange at times, especially with things like NAFTA.

I suspect that, in time, privacy at the international level will become a major issue. When countries start having spam wars, or worse, based on borrowed or sold data bases, people will complain.

Of course, the Verisign is just a blip on the horizon. The recent HotMail data sharing with a company that can crossreference with telephone numbers is making me want to put some sort of filtering device on my phone. Say one that says "Please state who you are and what YOUR phone number is and I MIGHT call you back."

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