On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 4:25 AM, Steven Bellovin <smb@cs.columbia.edu> wrote:
Clearly, the apartment complex owners could do that if they so choose. I'm not sure who you suggest should "buy a box from mail boxes etc. yourself and set up mail forwarding each time you set up a new apartment complex" -- the ISP? How does that help? This is, as you say, a way to contact the apartment complex owners, right?
Steven, Getting a post office box is a standard and widely accepted way to receive mail when for any reason you don't want the mail addressed to your physical location. Companies like Mail Boxes Etc. take the service one step further - they'll repackage the received mail and send it to your physical address so you don't have to stop by and check the box. Essentially, they provide a second postal address for the recipient unbound from the recipient's physical address. That's what you wanted, right? To avoid revealing the resource consumer's physical address?
The issues have to do with knowledge and expenditure. For the most part, consumers and apartment complex owners have no knowledge of IP geolocation or SWIP. It is consumer privacy at risk here, but consumers have no opportunity to opt out of this scheme even if they knew about it. "Discuss it with the apartment complex" is generally null advice; apart from the fact that consumers have exactly zero leverage in many markets, the apartment managers (a) don't know about it, either, and (b) can't be bothered to get a PO box and collect the (rare) mail from it.
If you feel that way, I suggest you take the issue up on the ARIN public policy mailing list. Solicit public consensus for a change in handling for SWIPs for "apartment complexes as ISP resellers." Absent such a change, redacting identity and contact info for the apartment management company remains simple fraud. Regards, Bill Herrin -- William D. Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us 3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/> Falls Church, VA 22042-3004