"...But the intellectual property folks see whois as their enforcement database, and are working toward making that its primary purpose. Those two purposes are at odds, and that's what the debate is all about. Except so far the public comments have come mostly from just one side..."
Via GLYN MOODY: http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2007/10/battle-for-soul-of-whois.html

A panel on Internet names voted Wednesday to defer long-simmering questions on whether names, phone numbers and other private information on domain name owners should remain public in open, searchable databases called Whois.

"During the last public ICANN meeting (LA, Oct. 29 - Nov. 2), there has been a discussion on a proposal to restrict the public display of information that registrants provide when registering domain names (aka whois)..."

A very quick command line tip today, for users of pretty much any Unix-based operating system, including Linux distributions. When you're looking up information on a certain web site or domain name, you might be used to using whois functions on websites such as to see who owns a domain.

An anonymous reader writes "From the article: 'Apple is being sued for allegedly letting mobile apps on the iPhone and iPad send personal information to ad networks without the consent of users.'

Should we trust Google with our private data while they take a recalcitrant attitude towards privacy concerns?

Keeping information safe and away from eyes that shouldn’t see it can be pretty important. Here in the UK we’ve had several instances where the government has lost personal information. Since that information wasn’t encrypted, it could be in anyone’s hands by now.

The plot thickens the the google/microsoft/privacy debate...

"IP addresses, string of numbers that identify computers on the Internet, should generally be regarded as personal information, the head of the European Union's group of data privacy regulators said Monday..."