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Home | News | End of privacy for .us domain name owners
End of privacy for .us domain name owners
, 20 March 2005The US Commerce Department has ordered companies that administer domain names to stop allowing customers to register .us domain names anonymously.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the Commerce Department Agency that advises the President on telecommunications and information policy delivered the edict a month ago, Wired News reports. The administration is believed to have made the ruling without warning and without any discussion with the companies accredited to sell and register .us domains. The domain companies have been told they will lose their right to sell .us domains if they fail to comply.
The NTIA insists it is simply enforcing a provision in a pre-existing contract that the registrars had violated. In a letter, the administration called for an end to proxy registration for .us domains and urged registrars to correct existing proxy registration information from .us customers. The Electronic Privacy Information Center has attacked the move, claiming that it violates First Amendment rights to anonymous free speech.
The .us domain was opened to the public for use in April 2002, with the stipulation that domain owners are either US citizens, have a business in the country or have some other direct connection to the United States.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the Commerce Department Agency that advises the President on telecommunications and information policy delivered the edict a month ago, Wired News reports. The administration is believed to have made the ruling without warning and without any discussion with the companies accredited to sell and register .us domains. The domain companies have been told they will lose their right to sell .us domains if they fail to comply.
The NTIA insists it is simply enforcing a provision in a pre-existing contract that the registrars had violated. In a letter, the administration called for an end to proxy registration for .us domains and urged registrars to correct existing proxy registration information from .us customers. The Electronic Privacy Information Center has attacked the move, claiming that it violates First Amendment rights to anonymous free speech.
The .us domain was opened to the public for use in April 2002, with the stipulation that domain owners are either US citizens, have a business in the country or have some other direct connection to the United States.