I have my own little internet empire, right?  Basically I have several servers, provide for all of my own services, own a myriad of domains, and I host web sites for quite a few people.  You can imagine, with my contact information in WHOIS databases across the globe, that I would receive unsolicited marketing materials on a regular basis.

Even though it’s expressly forbidden, I don’t expect the spam to stop.  Spammers are unscrupulous cretins who don’t abide by any law.  It’s for that reason alone that I don’t generally get worked up about the volume of spam I receive at my public e-mail address (the one associated with all of my domains that is publicly available via WHOIS queries).

But I do take offense at the formal marketing materials I get via postal mail which are obviously generated from my WHOIS information.

For instance, there’s a company called Internet Listing Service Corporation (ilscorp.net).  I’ve been getting unsolicited marketing material from them for years (as long as I’ve owned a domain name).  Their marketing approach borders on illegal and could easily be construed as mail fraud.

You see, they market their service to domain name owners by sending them what appears to be an invoice for $35 (one invoice for every domain name owned).  The “invoice” is quite official looking and would seem to be related to keeping your domain name (even though that is handled through a registrar).

For the casual observer, it is essentially an invoice for your domain name — something that must be paid to keep your domain active.  It’s not until you look on the back of the page near the bottom that you find where it says it’s not a bill but is instead a solicitation.  Quite deceptive, IMO.

Why is this not deceptive trade practice, mail fraud, and, more importantly, a violation of the ICANN policy regarding bulk WHOIS access by third parties?  That policy specifically states that “registrar’s access agreement shall require the third party to agree not to use the data to allow, enable, or otherwise support any marketing activities, regardless of the medium used.  Such media include but are not limited to e-mail, telephone, facsimile, postal mail, SMS, and wireless alerts.”

In response to that requirement, my registrar clearly states in its WHOIS access policy that “you agree not to use this data to allow, enable, or otherwise make possible, dissemination or collection of this data, in part or in its entirety, for any purpose, such as the transmission of unsolicited advertising and solicitations of any kind, including spam.”

Yet I still get these mailings from ILSCorp that are obviously a clear violation of that policy.

Part of the problem is that ICANN makes all sorts of regulatory decisions regarding domain names, yet they have no intention of enforcing those decisions.  ICANN also has no regard for individual privacy as they force you to keep valid information in WHOIS which can easily be used to support identity theft, domain spoofing or hijacking, unsolicited marketing (including spam), and a myriad of other activities which they should be protecting us from — not endorsing through lose-lipped policies and insufficient security requirements.

Companies like ILSCorp run their business via illegal activities, blatantly violating both ICANN and registrar policies by downloading bulk WHOIS data specifically for the purpose of sending unsolicited marketing materials.

Oh, and I’m ultimately left with wondering how my information was included in bulk WHOIS dumps when I specifically requested that it not be included (since I know that information is used for nefarious purposes which I’d rather not be subjected to)…

Someone needs to do something about ILSCorp and the rest of the data thieves who take WHOIS data specifically to violate the policy which governs its use and to invade (or otherwise violate) the privacy of those whose data they get their grubby little paws on.