At the moment there is a big difference between the information you, as the consumer, can get about a website. This differs from country to country, and from top-level domain to top-level domain.
Some countries try, by legislation, to help the consumers, by setting demands to the information that must be present on a website for businesses and individuals when they sell goods online. Most countries do nothing and in some countries the government seems more focused on protecting the businesses than the consumers.
We want to change that!
Our demands, as consumers, to the organisations that control the domains are:
- As a minimum it must be possible to find out from which country the owner of a given domain is, both for businesses and individuals.
- If the owner of a domain is a business or any other form of organisation (as in not an individual), it must be possible to get the name, address, country and the local business registration ID of the entity.
What should be a given:
- When running a website that sells goods or services, it clearly has to be stated on the website who the owner is. The information should include name of the entity (individual or business), address, country and whether it's a business entity or an individual person.
What we should set as goal:
- Information on businesses/organisations should be readily available online, searchable through a public API provided by the government of the country of origin. This includes name, address, registration ID, ownership, etc.