Concerned about new Chinese data collection policies, Go Daddy announced Wednesday that it will no longer allow customers to sign up for new .CN domain names.

Concerned about new Chinese data collection policies, Go Daddy announced Wednesday that it will no longer allow customers to sign up for new .CN domain names.

The domain registrar will continue to manage existing .CN domain names.

"There appears to be a recent increase in China's surveillance and monitoring of the Internet activities of its citizens," Christine Jones, general counsel for Go Daddy, told the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), a committee comprised of nine senators and nine House members that monitors Chinese human rights.

This increased surveillance and reporting requirements have prompted Go Daddy to stop new Chinese registrations.

"We didn't want to act as an agent of the Chinese government," Jones said. "We can't let them be strong and us be weak all the time. We just have to stop it, and then we'll start offering .CN domain names again."

Go Daddy has offered .CN domain names since 2005, and is authorized by the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) to do so. Traditionally, Go Daddy has collected the first and last names of registrants, as well as their physical address, telephone number, and e-mail address  and reported that data to the CNNIC.

In December 2009, however, CNNIC announced that it would now require people registering new .CN domain names to also submit color headshot photos, business identification, and physical signed registration forms.

A month later, CNNIC announced that Chinese nationals would no longer be able to register domain names through non-Chinese registrars, and Go Daddy halted all new .CN registrations. But on Feb. 3, 2010, CNNIC said it would re-open .CN domain registration to international companies.

The stricter data collection requirements remained in effect, however, and Chinese officials took it one step further to require existing .CN domain name holders to retroactively submit photos, business information, and registration forms.

"We were advised that domain names of registrants who did not register as required would no longer resolve. In other words, their domain names would no longer work," Jones said.

The new rules affected about 1,200 Go Daddy customers. Go Daddy contacted these people, informed them of the requirements, and told them this new information would be provided to CNNIC. Only about 20 percent of those 1,200 people provided the data.

"The domain names of the remaining 900 or so customers remain at risk of cancellation. That means thousands of Web sites the Chinese authorities may successfully disable because of retroactive application of this new set of rules," Jones said. "For these reasons, we have decided to discontinue offering new .CN domain names at this time."

Go Daddy statements steal spotlight from Google

The purpose of Wednesday hearing was to examine the effect of Chinese Internet regulation in light of Google's recent decision to in China. that it would re-direct Google.cn traffic to its non-censored Hong Kong site at Google.com/hk.

Alan Davidson, director of U.S. public policy for Google, appeared at the hearing and said that in the wake of Monday's switch, "we have already seen intermittent censorship of certain search queries on both Google.com.hk and Google.com."

Davidson said that Google's ultimate goal is not to get other U.S. Internet companies to follow in its footsteps. "Our long-term hope is that we can offer our services in China," he said.

The Chinese embassy declined to send a representative to appear in person at the hearing, but they did send a statement.

"Foreign companies need to abide by Chinese laws and regulations when they operate in China. Google has violated the written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service and making thinly veiled accusation against China," the statement said. "This is totally wrong. We are firmly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues."

Chinese officials met with Google on Jan. 29 and Feb. 25, during which "the Chinese side emphasized that China still welcomes Google's operation and development in China provided that it abides by Chinese laws," the Chinese said.

"The Chinese government is committed to the opening up of the Internet," the embassy said.

In a Tuesday press conference, Qin Gang, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said that "the Chinese Government administers the Internet according to law and this position will not change."

Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat and chairman of the CECC, said that "China too often wants a one-way relationship with the world."

"China wants to participate in the marketplace, the marketplace of goods, but to keep the marketplace of ideas outside of their country, controlled by themselves," Dorgan said. "Respected countries don't pick and choose to participate in only slivers of the world." Google's decision to stop censoring Chinese search results was prompted by an attack originating in China that attempted to access Google intellectual property, as well as the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

Jones said Wednesday that Go Daddy has also been the victim of Chinese-based attacks.

"In the first three months of this year, we have repelled dozens of extremely serious DDoS attacks that appear to have originated in China, based on the IP addresses from which the attacks derived," Jones said. "Had our security systems not countered these attacks, the result would have been a widespread take-down of our customers' hosted Web sites."

Go Daddy has also battled Chinese-based spam zombies and payment fraud coming out of that country, Jones said.

Go Daddy has not had any of its intellectual property stolen, Jones said. Most of the attacks the company has endured are designed to disable Go Daddy-hosted Web sites, she said. Those sites mostly deal with content the Chinese find objectionable, such as Tiananmen Square anniversary sites or blogs that discuss Buddhist monks.

China has rarely asked Go Daddy to shut down sites trafficking in counterfeit goods, for example, "because, frankly, I think they support that," Jones said.