[ga-sys] A "whois-harvester-buster" in beta

[Alexander Svensson <alexander@svensson.de>]

Dear GA-Systems readers,

I stumbled across this, and I'm not sure whether
it's well known yet: http://www.myprivacy.ca/ offers
free e-mail addresses @myprivacy.ca which can be
put in the .ca Whois record for Canadian domain names.

They block all e-mail (*black*listing by default):
-- People sending an e-mail e.g. to demo@myprivacy.ca
   receive an auto-response which contains a
   temporary e-mail address expiring within 24 hours,
   e.g. demo-dated-998918581.ab865d@myprivacy.ca.
   So if they are human beings and not spam
   robots, they can re-send their mail to the
   temporary address.
-- If the sender is the Canadian Internet Registration
   Authority (CIRA), the e-mail will get through
   automatically. If the sender is one of the registrars
   (currently five) which are whitelisted, the e-mail
   will get through, too.

They say on their Web pages that it "can be used with
.COM/.NET/.ORG under certain circumstances (like all your
dealings with your registrar is done via a website, not
email, or your domains are with a participating registrar)".
On the other hand "If your registrar emails you important
messages, like rebill notices and renewals and they are not
whitelisted here, you run the danger of missing this email."

Of course, all the Unix jocks ;) will be able to build
it themselves (http://tmda.sourceforge.net/ is for them,
I suppose), but this is the first time I've seen such
a system offered for the general public, with the explicit
purpose of preventing Whois spam.

To see how the challenge/response mechanism works, you
can send something to demo@myprivacy.ca and receive
the standard auto-response.

Short wish-list, if someone wants to set up such a
system for com/net/org:
-- Clearer explanations in the 'challenge' mail,
   maybe with links to explanations in other languages
-- All ICANN registrars whitelisted, or maybe
   optional whitelisting ("tick your registrar")?
-- Obviously lots of testing, and the organization
   running it would of course have to have a high
   reputation, since it has de facto control over
   the mail address used for domain registration!

Best regards,
/// Alexander
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