Fwd: Fw: Wyden, Eshoo Lead Bicameral Effort Urging NTIA to Protect Website Owners=?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=99_?=Personal Information, Quickly Adopt Strong Privacy Protections

[Stephanie E Perrin]

This is very welcome news, particularly for those of us fighting in the 
trenches here to protect privacy.

Stephanie Perrin

*Subject:* Wyden, Eshoo Lead Bicameral Effort Urging NTIA to Protect 
Website Owners’ Personal Information, Quickly Adopt Strong Privacy 
Protections

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/XlXTZe5foxx8e9I7p5uo8g6zPy9owFYd4u2uAEio5Ll1CsMbWs8X9NtdP-de_d3aMbL9l-TrPFFGYRZIKj3Ky-kJ9xCCSg_f7FNnbmkWdnQfc8RZkjsXU4L_sW1oUW8NBXq2XM7imKWNhGAC3p8TM0fqxkpGehUcWkuNtuwkRQoorS_FR0Pp5DUYmw

*For Immediate Release**: September 21, 2022*

Contact: Keith Chu <mailto:Keith_Chu at wyden.senate.gov> (Wyden) (202) 
224-5244

*Wyden, Eshoo Lead Bicameral Effort Urging NTIA to Protect Website 
Owners’ Personal Information, Quickly Adopt Strong Privacy Protections *

*/Washington, D.C./*– U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and U.S. 
Representative Anna G. Eshoo, D-Calif., today led a bicameral effort 
urging the National Telecommunications and Information Administration 
(NTIA) to upgrade its privacy practices to protect the personal 
information of .US users.

Domain registration information contains highly sensitive personal 
information. These records include names, email addresses, physical 
addresses and phone numbers. Domain name users can be anyone, including 
journalists, activists and public interest, political and religious 
organizations.

*“It is highly concerning that NTIA, since at least 2005, has not 
directed its contractors**administering .US to adopt any protections for 
this sensitive information. The automatic public disclosure of users’ 
personal information puts them at enhanced risk for becoming victims of 
identity theft, spamming, spoofing, doxxing, online harassment, and even 
physical harm,” *the lawmakers wrote in a letter sent to NTIA Assistant 
Secretary and Administrator, Alan Davidson. *“.US should be a model of 
the United States’ values with regard to online privacy and expression. 
In addition to putting users at risk of abuse of their information, the 
current lack of privacy protections chills vibrant expression and 
important speech online. Anonymity is a necessary component of the 
American right to free speech.”*

**

There is little evidence that the continued public disclosure of this 
information makes the global internet any less safe or secure. In fact, 
despite the domain industry increasing privacy protections for users 
over the last several years, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names 
and Numbers (ICANN) has recently observed that the number of domains 
responsible for phishing, malware, spam and botnets has declined.

In their letter, the lawmakers highlighted appropriate measures NTIA 
could implement to correct for decades of inaction to protect privacy in 
.US, including:

  * Offering privacy to users free of charge and automatically upon
    registration.
  * Requiring a user’s affirmative, informed consent for transferring
    user data to third parties, including public disclosure.
  * Requiring governments, including our own, to seek a warrant or other
    appropriate legal process when requesting access to .US user data.
  * Alerting users whenever governments – especially adversaries like
    Russia and China – have sought access to their information.

NTIA has the opportunity to model a more secure and private system for 
registering internet domains through its control of .US, the members 
wrote. Adding new privacy protections to .US could provide a global 
model for privacy best-practices for protecting domain name user data.

The letter was co-signed by U.S. Senators Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and 
Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and U.S. Representatives Ted Lieu, D-Calif., 
Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Tom 
Malinowski, D-N.J., and Stephen F. Lynch, D-Mass.

Read the full letter here 
<https://www.wyden.senate.gov/download/wyden-eshoo-letter-to-ntia-on-privacy-in-us>. 


A web version of this release is here 
<https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-eshoo-lead-bicameral-effort-urging-ntia-to-protect-website-owners-personal-information-quickly-adopt-strong-privacy-protections->. 


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