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LOS ANGELES - A panel on Internet names voted Wednesday to conduct further studies on the databases containing names, phone numbers and other private information on domain name owners, deferring long-simmering questions over whether such details should remain public. The committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, which oversees Internet addresses, also rejected a proposal to give Internet users the ability to list third-party contacts rather than their own private data in the open, searchable databases called Whois. Law-enforcement officials, trademark lawyers and journalists, as well as spammers, now access the database to figure out who may be behind a Web site. But privacy advocates say individuals shouldn’t have to reveal personal information simply to have a Web site. A third proposal, a so-called “sunset” option that would have eliminated the requirement for domain name registration companies to make the data available through Whois, was narrowly rejected, 13-10. That measure would have likely resulted in large gaps in registration records. The proposal on listing third-party contacts was defeated 17-7, the same margin by which the studies measure was approved. Ross Rader, a member of ICANN’s generic names council and the sunset proposal’s chief sponsor, said after the committee meeting that he was disappointed that the committee opted for an “open-ended” study. “We’ve had seven years of study on this issue … what has not been answered is what are the specific questions we want answers to,” Rader said. “From my perspective, further, broad, open study is just a way for (opponents) to say you don’t have enough votes to change the status quo.” The committee, the Generic Names Supporting Organization Council, set a deadline of Feb. 15 to identify what types of studies are needed.