Whoops! ICANN makes domain applicants' personal info public
Agency that oversees oversees the assignment of Web domains published postal addresses from applications by mistake.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Named and Numbers, or ICANN, said it accidentally published the addresses of top-level domain applicants, but has since taken them down.
ICANN posted a notice yesterday indicating that it temporarily disabled viewing of the application details to remove the postal addresses of some primary and secondary contacts for top-level domain, or TLD applications. The addresses appeared as responses to questions on the application. The viewing was restored on the same day sans the personal information.
"We temporarily disabled viewing of the application details. We removed the unintended information and restored this functionality," ICANN's statement reads. "We apologize for this oversight. Applicants should contact the Customer Service Center with any questions or concerns."
ICANN oversees the assignment of Web domains and did a public reveal of the applicants, which included big names like Google, Amazon and Microsoft, for TLDs on Wednesday. The TLD's, also known as "strings," were also revealed, with some of the most coveted being .app and .home.