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Domainers not welcome in this Whois database

Kevin Murphy, May 18, 2018, 11:17:15 (UTC), Domain Registries

Inquiries from domain investors are specifically barred under one registry’s take on GDPR compliance.
The Austrian ccTLD registry, nic.at, yesterday stopped publishing the personal information of human registrants in its public Whois database, unless the registrant has opted to have their data public.
The company said it will provide thick Whois records only to “people who provide proof of identity and are able to prove a legitimate interest for finding out who the domain holder is”.
But this specifically excludes people who are trying to buy the domain in question.
“A buying interest or the wish to contact the domain holder is definitely no legitimate interest,” the company said in a statement.
It quotes its head of legal, Barbara Schlossbauer, saying: “I am also not able to investigate a car driver’s address over his license number just because I like his car and want to buy it.”
She said that those able to access records include “law enforcement agencies, lawyers or people who contact nic.at following domain disputes and who can prove that their rights have been infringed”.
While nic.at is bound by GDPR, as a ccTLD registry it is not bound by the new GDPR-compliant Whois policy announced by ICANN overnight, where who will be able to request thick Whois records is still an open question.

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Comments (2)

  1. Dear Domainers – what was not said in this article is that individual persons still can require to be published in the Whois – so no need to worry. Just turn to your registrar and make him publish your data if you wish so!

    • Kevin Murphy says:

      The article does actually specify “unless the registrant has opted to have their data public.”

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