ICANN announced Friday that it is pursuing legal action in Germany against Epag. Epag is owned by Tucows, who are one of the largest registrars in the world. So what is going on? Why is ICANN taking legal action against a registrar? According to the announcement from ICANN the action is "to preserve whois data". However it's not that simple. ICANN has been … [Read more...] about ICANN Sues German Registrar Over GDPR
whois
Nominet GDPR Consultation Closes Tomorrow
Nominet, the registry for .uk, is conducting a consultation on how it will handle whois data once GDPR comes into force. It's worth noted that the consultation is only related to the *.uk namespace and is not about any of the gTLD registries on the Nominet platform. While that is the main focus of the current consultation they're also using it as an opportunity to make a few … [Read more...] about Nominet GDPR Consultation Closes Tomorrow
ICANN Writes to ALL European Union Privacy Authorities
In what could be viewed as an unprecedented move, ICANN has written to each and every data protection authority in the European Union. Why? ICANN feels that there is uncertainty about how the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) should impact registrars and registries specifically in relation to the collection, processing and retention of domain name registration … [Read more...] about ICANN Writes to ALL European Union Privacy Authorities
ICANN Maps Whois Models For GDPR
Earlier today ICANN held a webinar to provide an update on their data privacy activities in relation to whois and GDPR. Rather than simply talking about the various "models" they produced both a visual mapping as well as a matrix. While some attendees may not agree with how all the models are classified it is still a helpful way of showing the deviations from the current … [Read more...] about ICANN Maps Whois Models For GDPR
European Data Protection Authorities Send Clear Message to ICANN
The Article 29 Working Party represents the data protection authorities of all 28 member states of the European Union. In many instances the individual DPAs prefer to rely on a high level communication from the Article 29 Working Party rather than taking individual action. As data protection law in the EU has been fairly harmonious for years this approach made a lot of sense. … [Read more...] about European Data Protection Authorities Send Clear Message to ICANN
Some Whois Lookup Services Might be Broken
There are thousands of sites and services on the 'net that offer domain name whois lookup services. As of last night many of them may have stopped working. Why? Many of them rely on fairly rudimentary software that parses the whois from Verisign (for .com and .net) and then relays the query to the registrar whois. The site or service then displays the whois output from the … [Read more...] about Some Whois Lookup Services Might be Broken
ICANN Seeking Volunteers for WHOIS Review
ICANN announced yesterday that it is seeking volunteers for the WHOIS review team. To be more precise, the review is actually focussed on the "Registration Directory Service", as the terminology and technology is evolving. There are currently quite a few other "whois related" activities going on within ICANN's policy development system. So why is ICANN launching yet another … [Read more...] about ICANN Seeking Volunteers for WHOIS Review
P is for Proxy
Last night Google unveiled their new plans for global domination, which involves the company morphing into something new "Alphabet". And new TLD types around the globe rejoiced, as the online behemoth chose to use a .xyz domain name for their big reveal (They also made a funny reference to another .xyz in the source code .. ) But while "G is for Google", then "P is for … [Read more...] about P is for Proxy
Nominet Announces Whois Policy Changes
Nominet, the .uk registry, announced today a number of policy changes that impact how they handle whois data. The new policy comes after the registry conducted consultation with stakeholders. So what is changing? Essentially there are two key elements: Criteria and handling of "opt out" requests Introduction of whois privacy / proxy services Under the current … [Read more...] about Nominet Announces Whois Policy Changes
.WTF Domain Being Used In Privacy Campaign
ICANN comment periods on policy proposals don't normally garner much attention. In the case of the current comment period on proxy / privacy services, however, things are very different. To date several thousand comments have been filed, while the topic of the policy proposals has received media attention across hundreds of outlets. Today, however, I noticed some people … [Read more...] about .WTF Domain Being Used In Privacy Campaign