Manitu.net is a german hosting provider operating AS34240 currently announcing 2.59.84.0/22, 85.116.192.0/19, 89.238.64.0/18, 217.11.48.0/20 and 2a00:1828::/32. I was quite disconcerted to read this notice in their whois record in the RIPE NCC db (within the nic handle MANI-RIPE ): remarks: trouble:+------------------------------------------------+ remarks: trouble:| In case of abuse, e.g. spam, scans, probes, | remarks: trouble:| hack attacks, violation or any other illegal | remarks: trouble:| activity, please contact | remarks: trouble:| | remarks: trouble:| abuse@manitu.net | remarks: trouble:| | remarks: trouble:| IMPORTANT:Your message will probably sent to | remarks: trouble:| the customer concerned by an automatic system. | remarks: trouble:| All of your data, esp. your name, your e-mail | remarks: trouble:| address and the content of your message, will | remarks: trouble:| be visible to the customer. If you do not | remarks: trouble:| agree with this do not use the e-mail address | remarks: trouble:| shown above. | remarks: trouble:| | remarks: trouble:| Complaints sent to any other contacts cannot | remarks: trouble:| be handled in realtime and are therefore not | remarks: trouble:| preferred. | remarks: trouble:| | remarks: trouble:| Please note that this contact is not | remarks: trouble:| responsible for the actions themselves. | remarks: trouble:| So please do not blame us for actions of | remarks: trouble:| third parties. | remarks: trouble:+------------------------------------------------+ This is so absurd, I had to read it twice to make sure that I was not misreading it. They state that they automatically pass all my personal data to abusers if I send a report to them, so that: * Abusers can listwash me and avoid getting further reports from me * Abusers can sell my data to other abusers * Abusers can start harass me electronically (for instance using list bombing, DDOS etc) as a retaliation for disturbing their activity * Abusers could also harass me or my family in real life for the same reason In this process: * My personal data are released automatically to third parties without my explicit consent * Those third parties will presumably remain unknown to me, and the whole process is completely opaque: I will never know where my personal data went. So this is what a reporter would get back in exchange of doing volunteering work to report incidents to them so that they could run a cleaner network! This behaviour appears to blatantly violate RIPE-409, section 5 [ https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-409#5 ]: The ISP MUST ensure that the alleged abuser is NOT informed of the identity of those who are reporting the abuse, except with their explicit permission and I thought that this was given for granted by the whole Internet industry. This brings a lot of suspicion around Manitu GmbH. Who are they? Why are they violating the BCP, probably many privacy laws, putting reporters at danger, and doing such a huge favour to cybercriminals ? What benefit are they getting from acting in this way? In the meanwhile, I would suggest that no one sends anything to Manitu abuse. They have two upstreams, AS9063 (VSE NET) and AS42652 (Inexio): probably their abuse desks should receive all the AS34240 reports, at least until this situation has been clarified. furio ercolessi