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Public comments open on new Whois policies

Kevin Murphy, February 11, 2021, 20:45:49 (UTC), Domain Policy

It’s your last chance to comment on ICANN’s proposed revisions to Whois policy.

ICANN has opened up public comments on what it opaquely calls EPDP Phase 2 Policy Recommendations for Board Consideration.

Why it just can’t use the term “Whois access”, or announce its public comment periods in layman’s terms is beyond me. Doesn’t it want public comments? Still, translating this nonsense into English keeps me in work, so I guess I won’t complain too hard.

The main feature of the proposed policy is a multi-tiered, somewhat centralized system for requesting access to Whois data about private registrants that has been redacted since the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation came into effect in May 2018.

It’s called SSAD, for System for Standardized Access and Disclosure, which was pieced together by a working group of community volunteers over a year.

Domain companies are generally okay with the compromise it represents, but intellectual property interests and others who would actually use the system think it’s a useless waste of money.

It’s expected to cost $9 million to build and $9 million a year to run.

There’s so much uncertainty about the system that in parallel with the public comments ICANN is also consulting with the GNSO Council, which approved the proposals in September, to figure out whether it’s even workable, and with the European Commission to figure out if it’s even legal.

After the public comment period closes on March 30, the comments will be compiled by ICANN staff and burned on a big fire sent to the ICANN board for final approval.


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Comments (2)

  1. Chris says:

    Glancing through the documents I’m actually positively surprised by the nuances in the proposed policies so far. They will most certainly help a lot with preventing abuse of the new whois system.

    The distinction between local and applicable law enforcement and others. The requirement to identify the requester and review most requests manually. The possibility to do something about people flooding everyone with bogus requests. It looks way better than expected.

  2. Patrizia says:

    The WHOIS Review Team submitted its Final Report to the Board and public comments are requested to inform subsequent Board consideration and action.

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