New York, NY (March 9, 2001) Tucows Inc.,, the world’s leading provider of wholesale domain name registrations, wants the domain name industry to protect and guarantee the privacy of the public by changing registrars’ operating agreements with ICANN and Verisign.
Elliot Noss, Tucows’ President and CEO, who is attending the ICANN meeting in Melbourne, Australia this week, said that registrants should be automatically protected from having their marketing information sold, without having to take action to protect themselves.
“Recent events show that leaders in the domain name industry are refusing to take into consideration the needs and interests of the general public,” said Noss, who noted that some companies are selling their databases of registrants’ private information for mass marketing purposes. “Tucows is announcing its stand on the issue of privacy here at ICANN so we can start generating support for this initiative at the registry and registrar levels,” Noss added.
Tucows position is that all data submitted to a registrar should be private, unless a registrant explicitly permits a second or third party to use it or sell it. Currently, registrants have to “opt out” of having their information sold by taking steps that aren’t always clear. Few registrants take those actions now, Noss noted.
To achieve Tucows’ goal, changes would have to be made to the Verisign Registrar License and Agreement and the ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement. Noss will raise Tucows’ proposed privacy standards with ICANN officials and committee members at this week’s ICANN meeting in Melbourne, Australia. He is also reaching out to consumer advocacy groups. Noss’ complete statement on the privacy initiative can be found at http://privacy.tucows.com.
About Tucows
Tucows is a leading distributor of e-business services and applications on the Internet. With a network of more than 5,000 partners/resellers in more than 110 countries around the world, Tucows is the largest network of its kind. The Tucows site offers more than 30,000 software titles in libraries located around the world, providing users with a fast local download. Tucows Inc. is an ICANN-accredited registrar. Tucows is the world’s leading provider of wholesale domain name registrations and related services. For more information, please visit: http://www.opensrs.org or http://partner.tucows.com or go to https://www.tucows.com and click on Partner Home.
Contact:
Dan Klores Associates, Inc.
Public Relations
Mark Hazlin/ Ed Tagliaferri/Phil DiIanni
Ph: (212) 685-4300
Mark.hazlin@dkanews.com/
In Australia:
e-marketing pty ltd – Phone – +61 3 9682 4788
Sharon Doheny
shadoh@e-marketing.com.au