Good morning. I am pleased to have this opportunity to speak here today about Whois databases. I am Jon Leibowitz, one of five Commissioners of the United States Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Commission”) in Washington, The FTC is an independent federal agency of the United States government, the lead agency charged with protecting Americans’ privacy, and the only agency in the United States empowered to enforce both competition and consumer protection laws. The FTC believes that the Whois databases, despite their limitations, are nevertheless critical to the agency’s consumer protection mission, to other law enforcement agencies around the world,.
