CDT POLICY POST Volume 9, Number 17, August 1, 2003

A Briefing On Public Policy Issues Affecting Civil Liberties Online
from
The Center For Democracy and Technology

(1) CDT Calls For Accountability in Domain Names Management

(2) ICANN's Private-Sector Structure Remains the Right Approach

(3) CDT Proposes Metrics to Evaluate ICANN

(4) Whois Privacy a Critical Upcoming Issue for ICANN

(1) CDT Calls For Accountability in Domain Names Management

In testimony before a Senate Subcommittee July 31, CDT highlighted substantial accountability and legitimacy questions at the Internet's manager of important technical functions, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), calling for better progress by ICANN at meeting public interest goals.

Since 1998, ICANN has coordinated critical Internet systems like the Domain Name System (the system of names like 'cdt.org'), IP address hierarchy (computer addresses), and other globally-important functions. These systems have great importance worldwide, making ICANN's activities the subject of global interest. Throughout that time, ICANN has been the subject of much controversy regarding its structure and processes; CDT, along with many other observers of ICANN, believes that it must strive to reflect the interests of Internet users in its activities.

CDT believes that ICANN has the right basic approach to Internet management. But because the systems ICANN oversees are crucial to the Internet's proper functioning, ICANN must prove itself accountable, representative of the broad Internet community, and limited in its authority. While ICANN has made some progress in these areas, improvement is needed. In order to promote progress, CDT believes that the U.S. government's primary agreement with ICANN, the Memorandum of Understanding, be renewed in September for a term of no longer than one year.

The Subcommittee Chairman, Conrad Burns (R-MT), echoed CDT's call for better accountability at ICANN and promised continued Congressional oversight of ICANN as it continues to grow.

The testimony of Alan Davidson, CDT's Associate Director, is available at http://www.cdt.org/testimony/030731davidson.pdf [pdf]

(2) ICANN's Private-Sector Structure Remains the Right Approach

CDT strongly believes that the original ICANN vision of private-sector management is still the best approach for managing the Internet's key functions. Key features of this vision include:

Non-governmental -- Private sector bodies may more nimbly address fast-paced, complex Internet technical decisions, and may better reflect the diversity of user interests.
Bottom-up and consensus oriented -- Decisions made in the best traditions of Internet bottom-up processes can account for broad interests and encourage compromise
Narrowly focused -- A focused mission creates trust that ICANN would not exercise undue power and increases comfort in its non-governmental character
Globally representative -- Helps ensure both public accountability and to include the interests of stakeholders affected by its decisions.

ICANN has made some progress in realizing this vision, but there is a significant distance still to go. Serious questions exist about ICANN's accountability, the lack of constraints on its authority, low participation and representation by key groups, and too-frequent departures from "bottom-up" decision making.

Unless ICANN can do better at realizing these pieces of its vision, it risks grave consequences. Powerful entities such as foreign governments, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and even the United Nations are beginning to discuss possible alternatives to ICANN. Such alternatives would likely include a vastly expanded role for governments, creating a costly and user-unfriendly environment that would poorly serve the interests of Internet users.

(3) CDT Proposes Metrics to Evaluate ICANN

With so many challenges facing ICANN, objective assessment of its overall progress has been difficult. To date, there is no widely agreed upon set of benchmarks for measuring how ICANN is doing -- and it is unclear how ICANN itself measures success.

To assist those seeking to understand ICANN's progress, CDT has released a new study, "Assessing ICANN: Towards Civil Society Metrics for Measuring ICANN," in which we review the literature that has been published surrounding ICANN and identify key recurring themes and goals. Drawing from those recurring themes, CDT has suggested ten "civil society metrics" for assessing ICANN from a public interest perspective:

Stable and secure coordination of key Internet functions.
Adherence to clearly defined scope of activities.
Accountability to affected stakeholders, including effective independent review procedures.
Transparency, including procedural and financial transparency.
Representation of key Interest groups, including the public's interests.
Acceptance by key stakeholders, ccTLDs, Regional Internet Registries, etc.
Minimized impact on user rights, such as privacy and free speech; consideration of impact on Less Developed Countries, etc.
Support for competition and, when possible, reliance on market mechanisms.
Increased security of the root server system.
Support for long-term evolution and innovation in information and computing technologies.

CDT believes that a set of commonly agreed metrics is critical to evaluating ICANN's strengths and shortcomings. Our hope is that other groups will use this list, or create their own, to develop a multi-sectoral approach to assessing ICANN. With a comprehensive framework for evaluating ICANN in place, discussions of ICANN's strengths and shortcomings will be facilitated and progress more achievable.

"Assessing ICANN: Towards Civil Society Metrics for Measuring ICANN" is available at http://www.cdt.org/dns/icann/030731assessingicann.pdf [pdf]

(4) Whois Privacy a Critical Upcoming Issue for ICANN

The Whois database -- a public listing of contact information for millions of domain name registrants -- has long raised significant privacy concerns. In the next year, ICANN is expected to consider reforms to Whois; its approach in dealing with this issue will be an important indicator of the state of accountability and representation at ICANN.

Currently, the registrant of a domain name in the public gTLDs and many ccTLDs must make certain technical and administrative contact information available in the "Whois" database accessible to the public online. Originally designed to allow contact in the case of a technical problem, the database is now also used by law enforcement, consumer protection agencies, and private groups including intellectual property holders.

When individual Internet users register domain names, Whois may require that they make their names, home addresses, home phone numbers, and home e-mail addresses publicly available to the world. Such potentially sensitive personal information, released publicly, can be used for unrelated purposes ranging from unwelcome marketing to identity theft, fraud, stalking, or other criminal activities. This exposure violates worldwide privacy norms and has put Whois on a collision course with national privacy laws, particularly in Europe, where is appears to violate the law of some countries.

A move is underway at ICANN to reform Whois in ways that will address individuals' privacy concerns while maintaining legitimate uses for the data. Proposals include the creation of a "tiered access" system for viewing Whois data, providing notice to users when their data is viewed, and creating "audit trails" that could expose abuse or misuse of the database. CDT believes a balance can be struck that protects privacy and allows reasonable access to data for important public purposes. ICANN's ability to incorporate the privacy interests of the global user community in this debate will be closely watched.

Detailed information about online civil liberties issues may be found at http://www.cdt.org/.

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