Defending Consumers on the Internet

Increasingly, organized criminals maliciously use the Internet’s underlying structure to profit from spam networks, identity theft, illicit pharmaceuticals, and other scams and cyber-threats. One of the technologies they abuse is the Domain Name System (DNS) - the protocol that enables your computer to identify the Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with a name such as www.icann.org - administered by the non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Criminal abuse of the DNS and IP addresses affects consumers every day.  That is why consumer groups concerned with the trust and integrity of the Internet should engage with ICANN as part of their advocacy and awareness-raising activities.

Consumers and ICANN

ICANN manages the Internet’s name and number systems, working to protect their security and stability. ICANN battles domain hijackers, spammers, and fraudsters, by ensuring the adoption of pro-consumer solutions to cyber-threats. ICANN policies are what allow the Internet to be a positive user experience for consumers. 

ICANN policies affect every single user of the Internet every day. Consumer organizations not engaged in ICANN’s processes are missing out on a key venue where their advocacy efforts can have real, meaningful global impact for the benefit of every Internet user.  By participating in ICANN policy development, consumer groups can:

  • Work with other members of the ICANN community to enhance the security, stability and resiliency of the Internet
  • Advocate pro-consumer rights, including the right to safety and information, in the development of Internet-related policy
  • Help develop policy that prevents cybercriminals from abusing the DNS in order to hide themselves and evade capture
  • Raise awareness among consumers on how to protect themselves from spam, scams, and cyber-threats
  • Educate consumers on how to report incidents in ways that will expedite response and restoration of Internet services disrupted by malicious actors and criminals

A Conduit for Consumer Interests in ICANN

The At-Large community serves as an important conduit for consumer interests worldwide as they relate to ICANN’s role in managing the security, stability and resiliency of the Internet. 

ICANN policy issues that directly impact consumers include:

  • The Introduction of new Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs)

Familiar top level domains labels (TLDs), such as .COM, .NET, .ORG have served well. Now ICANN is working to launch new gTLDs based on applications from the global Internet community, bringing rich new potential to how consumers will search the Internet – as well as new challenges.  Consumers will need to know how their browsing experience will be affected by new gTLDs, including gaining the most benefits as well as avoiding fraudulent sites.   Working with the At-Large community  provides consumer organizations with the tools needed to educate their members on the new gTLDs. 

  • Internationalized Domain Names - Your Internet, your language

There are now more non-English speakers on the Internet than English speakers, yet Internet TLD labels only support Western ASCII characters. In order to gain benefits from websites using internationalized domain names, consumers will need to be able to know how to determine if they are legitimate. The At-Large community provides consumer organizations with a valuable means to help resolve the issues surrounding the implementation of internationalized domain names and URLs.    

—        WHOIS Data Protects Consumers

Millions of domain names have been registered with inaccurate and false data. The At-Large community works to ensure that full and accurate contact information, including e-mail and phone numbers, are collected and maintained by registrars and resellers for all registered domains.  This provides consumers with a tool with which to verify the true owner of a site thereby reducing the chances of on-line abuse.   

 

  • Facilitating a More Trustworthy Internet for Consumers 

ICANN’s contracts and corresponding enforcement efforts facilitate a more trustworthy Internet space for all consumers every time they go on-line.  Members of the ICANN community are drafting a Registrant Rights Charter to strengthen consumers’ rights to information, fair treatment, and redress. Consumer organizations have a right - and a responsibility - to provide input into this Charter.  

  • Trademark Issues

The launch of the new gTLDs raises questions regarding potential abuse of trademarked names, and the balance between the rights of trademark holders versus the freedom of expression of the average Internet user.  The At-Large community offers insights and perspectives regarding intellectual property and consumer interests, Internet rights and principles that are arguably under-represented in policy deliberations today.

  • Transition from IPv4 to IPv6 – Ensuring Consumers Access to the Internet

The current Internet Protocol addressing system (IPv4) faces depletion. To make sure the next billion consumers will be able to connect to the Internet, the addressing system is transitioning to the next generation (IPv6).  The At-Large community contributes to policies ensuring IPv4 and IPv6 can coexist and interoperate.  

Providing Consumer Benefits 

Because consumers have limited time and consumer organizations have limited staff and limited funding, through participating in the At-Large community, provides valuable benefits to consumers and consumer groups and their members, including.

  • Provide consumers and consumer organizations with consumer-accessible Internet-related information;
  • Inform ICANN policy developers about the concerns of consumers;
  • Seek policy advice from consumers and consumer organizations’

How to Join Us

To ensure that the At-Large community represents a wide spectrum of consumer organizations, it needs your support and participation.  If you would like to work with ICANN to help influence the decisions that shape the Internet, we invite you and your consumer organization to join the At-Large community. For more information about how to protect and educate consumers on Internet-related issues, and how consumers groups can get involved in the At-Large community, please contact At-Large staff at staff@atlarge.icann.org.  

Additional Information for Consumers and Consumer Groups

Frequently Asked Questions

We have limited resources. Why should we devote them to ICANN?

Because you can make a tangible difference. There is a growing consumer movement within ICANN. Recently, it has succeeded in convincing the ICANN board to open up a slot to a representative from the Internet community. Further, in addition to the At-Large community, ICANN’s main policy-making body, the General Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) is undergoing reform that, no matter what course it takes, will result in more user representation. As venues for consumer voices increase, so their messages will be more frequently heard and acted upon.

What exactly does ICANN do? We seem to get a different answer depending on who’s asked.

ICANN’s mandate is to oversee the Internet’s domain name system, specifically, the assignment of addresses and names. Though that activity may sound circumscribed, policy debates can include some of the most important consumer Internet issues: Privacy, security, free speech, pricing of domain names, ability to reregister expired names. Other compelling issues include international sovereignty, intellectual property, diversity and multicultural concerns, language and culture. Debate continues over ICANN’s role as an “enforcer” or “regulator” over issues in its mandate. Some believe the less influence ICANN has over the Internet, the better. Others believe it could do more to enforce its registrar accreditation agreement, or RAA. This contract contains many critical provisions affecting consumers. Part of ICANN’s mandate also includes the safety, stability and security of the Internet, which includes responding to malware attacks such as the Conficker worm.

What are the most important consumer issues?

Answers to this question might vary, depending on whom you talk to. In 2009, the introduction of new “top‐level domains” (such as .com, .biz, and .net) prompted discussion on intellectual property and copyright issues, as well as concerns about the safety and stability of the DNS, and whether it could absorb potentially hundreds of new domains. Changes to the registrar accreditation agreement, or RAA, also took place, though some of the more consumer‐focused members of the ICANN community argued some changes didn’t go far enough. The community continues to study WHOIS, the database that underlies all Internet domain registrations with identity information. The state of WHOIS has been debated in the ICANN community to the point of stalemate, with no compromises emerging that all sides can agree on.

The most difficult WHOIS aspect to resolve hinges on privacy – should Internet registration be anonymous, to defend rights of expression who might use it to publicize the actions of an oppressive government? Or does such privacy come at the price of millions of fraudulent registrations used for criminal activity? Consumer organizations themselves are divided on the topic. Law‐enforcement organizations and intellectual property attorneys argue for access to data that is accurate and useful for investigating criminal activity and trademark infringement.

Intellectual property also forms the core of a number of issues in the consumer interest, from trademark protection and consumer confusion concerns (particularly important in the marketing and purchasing of pharmaceutical and medical products online). Freedom‐of‐expression issues also raise some fascinating questions (should the general public be prohibited from creating and purchasing a .hitler domain? Who should own the rights to .god? Or .allah?)

Glossary: A Brief Guide to ICANN Acronyms and Terms

As in many organizations, you’ll hear and see a staggering number of acronyms when you participate in ICANN. Below is a guide to some of the more frequently used, and important to consumer organizations. Most are pronounced by their letters; we’ve included a pronunciation guide for those that aren’t.

ALAC “A‐lack”) ‐‐ The At‐Large Advisory Committee. Two members are elected by each of the five  regional organizations (RALOs) while one member from each RALO is appointed by a nominating committee (NomCom). ALAC’s job is to advise the ICANN board and community on issues of importance to Internet users, with a view across the whole organization. The ALAC has no voting authority. However, it selected a member of the ICANN Board in November 2010.

ALS – At‐Large Structure. A group or organization, subject to accreditation, that makes up the members of a Regional At‐Large Structure, the entities that elect members to the At‐Large Advisory Committee and help determine policies and priorities for Internet users. ALSes are the grass-roots basis of the At-Large community.

BC – The Business Constituency. Represents business interests in ICANN policy matters, as a stakeholder body in the Generic Names Supporting Organization.

BGC – Board Governance Committee. Currently a six‐member group that assists the ICANN board and reviews its performance.

ccNSO – Country Code Names Supporting Organization. The policy development body for issues regarding country‐code top level domains (such as .us for the United States, .cn for China, .au for Australia).

ccTLD – Country‐Code Top Level Domain. These are generally reserved for countries, and are two letters long (.ar for Argentina, .zw for Zimbabwe).

Domainer – A controversial subgroup of entrepreneurs who make a living buying and selling domain names. This can include practices many consider abusive, such as cybersquatting, typosquatting, and domain confusion fraud, which attempts to imitate trademarked goods and services.

Domain hack – A way of using a domain suffix to create a longer name or reference, often as a form of pun. For instance, perpetrators of the “goatse” incident used the Christmas Island country‐code top‐level domain .cx to create an infamous “shock” Web site, goatse.cx, that depicted a repulsive picture. Another famous domain hack is del.icio.us

GAC (“gack”)---The Government Advisory Committee. Made up of representatives from more than 125 countries’ governments. Carries some responsibility and identity for representing the interests of consumers or, more specifically, citizens.

GNSO – The Generic Names Supporting Organization. Deals with policymaking regards generic top‐level domains, which include the familiar .com, .net, .biz, .org and .edu. Regarded as the main ICANN policy‐ making body, despite its scope. Its voting forum is the GNSO council, or sometimes called just “council,” on which the constituencies have voting seats.

gTLD – generic Top‐Level Domain. One of the three types of domains, the others being infrastructure top‐level domain and country‐code top‐level domain. There are 21 gTLDs, soon likely to be many more, that include the familiar .com and .org but also .aero, .cat (for Catalan language), and the financially troubled .travel.

ICANN (eye‐can), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. A non‐profit corporation created Sept. 18, 1998 and headquartered in Marina Del Rey, Calif., with offices in Brussels, Belgium, Silicon Valley, USA, Sydney, Australia, and Washington, D.C. USA. ICANN is responsible for administering domain names and IP addresses (the numbers that make up a computer or network address, like 204.88.313.155) on the Internet.

IANA (eye‐anna), usually heard in conjunction with (“the IANA contract says…) – the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. Managed by ICANN, IANA allocates names and numbers that make up IP addresses.

NCSG – Non‐commercial stakeholders group. A forming entity to represent non‐commercial interests in the Generic Names Supporting Organization. One of the two key groups, along with the ALAC, for consumer organizations’ participation in ICANN affairs.

NCUC – The Non‐Commercial Users Constituency. Under current plans the NCUC, which has three votes on the Generic Names Supporting Organization council, would be reformed into the Non‐commercial stakeholders group. NCUC participants include public‐interest, advocacy and other kinds of groups, educational institutions and others.

NomCom – Nominating Committee. Members are appointed by users’ regions. In turn, the Nominating Committee makes appointments, via applications, to the ALAC and other parts of ICANN.

PDP – Policy Development Process. Can be requested by an ICANN constituency in certain circumstances where policy needs to be created for the administration or solution of a problem.

RALO (“ray‐low”) ‐‐ Regional At‐Large Organization. RALOs are divided geographically: NARALO for North America, LACRALO for Latin America, APRALO for Asia‐Pacific, AFRALO for Africa, and EURALO for Europe. Within each RALO are a group of At-Large Structures (ALSes), or national end-user organizations.  Only NARALO currently allows individuals as members, although other RALOs are working on measures to allow for individual participation. RALOs vote for two representatives each to the At‐Large Advisory Committee.

RAA – Registrar Accreditation Agreement. A legal contract that binds ICANN and registrars of domains (for instance, GoDaddy and Network Solutions) to a number of provisions. The RAA could be considered one of the most important documents affecting consumers within the ICANN universe.

Root, Root file, root zone – No easy definition, but generally, a reference to the core of the Internet address system and its servers, essential to the function of the Internet.

RyC – The Registry Constituency. Like the Registrar Constituency and Business Constituency, this one represents the interests of registries (such as PIR, the registry for .org) on the Generic Names Supporting Organization council.

SSAC (“ess‐sack”) ‐‐ Safety and Security Advisory Committee. Addresses Internet security concerns, issues and policy from an ICANN perspective. One of the more important and interesting committees for information on issues of consumer interest, such as malware attacks, phishing, and domain system abuse.

TLD – Top‐Level Domain. The highest level in the domain‐name system (DNS), consisting of generic top‐level domains and country‐code top‐level domains.

WHOIS (“who‐is,” not actually an acronym) – a way to query databases on a range of information, most important being identity information for Internet addresses. For the purposes of consumer organizations, WHOIS represents information that can be used by consumers and law enforcement agencies to identify who owns and operates a Web site. However, access to that data comes with privacy concerns.

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