RDRS usage hits new low
ICANN’s Registration Data Request Service was used less often in October than in any other month since it launched a year ago, according to the latest statistics.
There were 131 requests for private Whois data in the month, down from the previous low of 141 recorded in May and September’s 189, the monthly report published by ICANN shows.
There were 98 closed requests — another new low — and the mix of granted/refused requests tilted more towards approval than usual, with almost 35% of requests being approved versus 56% denied.
While it took on average 3.41 days for requests to be approved, the average time for denial was an incredible 41.96 days.
Three new registrars joined the voluntary pilot program in October, giving RDRS coverage of 60% of registered gTLD domain names.
The monthly report breaks down the geographic location of requestors and the requestor type for the first time, showing that the US was by far the biggest, followed by the UK, France and Brazil, with American IP owners and law enforcement most likely to request data.
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Not surprising! The most criminal friendly registrars systematically indicates a whois proxy service as the registrant, and the provisions of ICANN’s RAA doesn’t require the registrar to disclose the underlying registrant data when the official registrant is a proxy whois service (except to a UDRP/URS arbitrator). Therefore, the RDRS is only useful when the registrant data are redacted but no whois proxy service is used, which is a minority of the domain names