[db-wg] Decision on NWI-2 Historical queries

* denis walker via db-wg <db-wg at ripe.net> [2022-04-22 01:33]:
> Colleagues
> 
> Although I am replying to your email Cynthia, my comments are
> generally expressed to all. Let me try again to explain history. I
> still think there is a misunderstanding about what the RIPE Database
> is and what it means to publish information in this database. This is
> a public database. It is available globally to anyone who has an
> internet connection. Once you publish any information in this database
> it is public data. The full details of that data will be downloaded
> and copied by many people. This has almost certainly been done for
> many years if not decades. There may well be some people out there who
> have more historical data than the RIPE NCC holds. Anyone who is
> concerned about privacy should not allow their personal data to be
> published in this database. Once it is published it is too late to
> worry about privacy. It is already out there, it is public and it has
> been copied. You cannot take it back. You may have the right to be
> forgotten, but you don't have the means to be forgotten once you have
> broadcast your personal details in public. That is the simple reality
> of the internet.

I think Cynthia and most people on this mailinglist understand what
the RIPE database is. Even though you might have entered private
information in the past it does not mean the database should publish
these records for ever after they are deleted. You HAVE the right to
have your information removed from the RIPE database. It's completely
irrelevant where else that data may have been copied to.

Of course the information might be copied and downloaded by many
persons but that is no reason to make it easily available to do so
after this information is deleted.

The database is not "the Internet" and I find this argument highly
fatalistic. So even when there are places on "the Internet" where this
data still exists, it doesn't have to exist in the RIPE DB, readily
available.


> So back to historical queries. By providing this service for
> operational data going back to the start of the database, without any
> arbitrary restrictions, we remove the need for most people to go to
> the trouble of building up their own local, private database with a
> full copy of the data. By restricting access to past operational data
> on some arbitrary condition we actually monetise the data that some
> people already hold. We could create a market for some people to sell
> that data. Just like IPv4, where there is a demand for something, with
> few options for supply, some people will make money from it.


I don't agree with this argument. "We better give people full access
to the data or bad people will make money of it." Why? Why would
people pay money to get old data from the RIPE DB. Also this would be
a black market as it would violate privacy laws. And there are way
better data sources already available than the RIPE DB data.


Best Regards

Sebastian

-- 
GPG Key: 0x58A2D94A93A0B9CE (F4F6 B1A3 866B 26E9 450A  9D82 58A2 D94A 93A0 B9CE)
'Are you Death?' ... IT'S THE SCYTHE, ISN'T IT? PEOPLE ALWAYS NOTICE THE SCYTHE.
            -- Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant