§ Lord Lucasasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they support the principle that the WHOIS database of web domain owners should be open to access by the general public; and, if so, what representations they have made, and to whom, with a view to it remaining so. [HL3153]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville)We support the principle that the WHOIS database should be publicly accessible subject to the general rules governing data protection and the protection of privacy. We therefore agree with the view that, where a domain name holder is a private individual not acting for commercial purposes, the contact details of a third party could be listed in the public WHOIS database if the domain name holder wishes.
We have made a number of representations to ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers which co-ordinates the domain name system) on the need for an open WHOIS. For example, in its opinion of 16 November 2000 on new generic top level domains, the ICANN Government Advisory Committee (of which the UK is a member) said:
"The [Government Advisory Committee] considers that ICANN's agreements with the selected Registry sponsors and operators should include … requirements to maintain accurate and up-to-date registration data, including a publicly available WHOIS database".
see http://www.icann.org/committees/gac/new-tid-opinion-16nov00.htm