[anti-abuse-wg] RIPE NCC's proposed implementation of Abuse Contact Management in the RIPE Database

* Kaveh Ranjbar:

> One of the reasons that it is only tied to the "role" object and not
> the "person" object is to avoid those issues. A role object is not
> designed to hold personal information, it is a representation of a
> unit in an organisation. The "abuse-mailbox:" attribute is also
> supposed to represent the generic email address of the contact point
> for the abuse handling entity within an organisation, not a real
> person. We will place clarifying notifications about this when users
> enter the data.
>
> None of the objects in the chain, "inetnum/inet6num/aut-num",
> "organisation" and "role" are provisioned as, or designed to be
> private data holders.

Are you sure?  After all, you anonymize these objects in the database
dumps, citing data protection concerns:

aut-num:         AS3255
as-name:         UARNET-AS
descr:           State Enterprise Scientific and Telecommunication Centre "Ukrainian Academic and Research Network" of the Institute for Condensed Matter Physics of the National Academy of Sc
ience of Ukraine (UARNet)
descr:           EARN-Ukraine
[...]
admin-c:         DUMY-RIPE
tech-c:          DUMY-RIPE
[...]
changed:         [...]
source:          RIPE
remarks:         ****************************
remarks:         * THIS OBJECT IS MODIFIED
remarks:         * Please note that all data that is generally regarded as personal
remarks:         * data has been removed from this object.
remarks:         * To view the original object, please query the RIPE Database at:
remarks:         * http://www.ripe.net/whois
remarks:         ****************************

inet6num:        2001:0658:021A::/48
netname:         DE-TRMD-HACKETHAL-1
descr:           IPv6 Markus Hackethal
descr:           Langenfeld
country:         DE
admin-c:         DUMY-RIPE
tech-c:          DUMY-RIPE
status:          ASSIGNED
mnt-by:          TRMD-MNT
changed:         [...]
source:          RIPE
remarks:         ****************************
remarks:         * THIS OBJECT IS MODIFIED
remarks:         * Please note that all data that is generally regarded as personal
remarks:         * data has been removed from this object.
remarks:         * To view the original object, please query the RIPE Database at:
remarks:         * http://www.ripe.net/whois
remarks:         ****************************

inetnum:         80.16.151.184 - 80.16.151.191
netname:         NETECONOMY-MG41731
descr:           TELECOM ITALIA LAB SPA
country:         IT
admin-c:         DUMY-RIPE
tech-c:          DUMY-RIPE
status:          ASSIGNED PA
[...]
changed:         [...]
source:          RIPE
remarks:         ****************************
remarks:         * THIS OBJECT IS MODIFIED
remarks:         * Please note that all data that is generally regarded as personal
remarks:         * data has been removed from this object.
remarks:         * To view the original object, please query the RIPE Database at:
remarks:         * http://www.ripe.net/whois
remarks:         ****************************

organisation:    ORG-NCC1-RIPE
org-name:        Dummy organisation name for ORG-NCC1-RIPE
org-type:        RIR
address:         Dummy address for ORG-NCC1-RIPE
e-mail:          unread at ripe.net
mnt-ref:         RIPE-NCC-RIS-MNT
mnt-ref:         RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
mnt-by:          RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
changed:         unread at ripe.net 20000101
source:          RIPE
remarks:         ****************************
remarks:         * THIS OBJECT IS MODIFIED
remarks:         * Please note that all data that is generally regarded as personal
remarks:         * data has been removed from this object.
remarks:         * To view the original object, please query the RIPE Database at:
remarks:         * http://www.ripe.net/whois
remarks:         ****************************

person:         Placeholder Person Object
address:        RIPE Network Coordination Centre
address:        P.O. Box 10096
address:        1001 EB Amsterdam
address:        The Netherlands
phone:          +31 20 535 4444
nic-hdl:        DUMY-RIPE
mnt-by:         RIPE-DBM-MNT
remarks:        **********************************************************
remarks:        * This is a placeholder object to protect personal data.
remarks:        * To view the original object, please query the RIPE
remarks:        * Database at:
remarks:        * http://www.ripe.net/whois
remarks:        **********************************************************
changed:        ripe-dbm at ripe.net 20090724
source:         RIPE

The latter is from the ripe.db.role.gz file.  (Curiously, the
"changed:" lines are left intact in the dump.)

I worry that most LIRs put quite a bit of effort into updating the
contact information, and then RIPE NCC decides to hide it because it's
considered personal data, like all the other contact information
currently in the database.