RDRS may not be dead
ICANN’s pilot Registration Data Request Service could live on beyond its original shelf life, if new recommendations are approved.
The GNSO’s RDRS Standing Committee has reached consensus on six proposals concerning the service’s future, the first of which is that it should carry on operating beyond its original November 2025 cut-off date.
RDRS is the system ICANN put in place to connect people who want access to unredacted Whois records with the registrars holding that data. It hasn’t been a spectacular success, and some large registrars have recently opted out of participation.
But the volunteer Standing Committee, which has been meeting every two weeks to monitor RDRS since it launched in November 2023, says that the service is useful and recommends that the pilot should carry on. Its report states:
The SC recommends maintaining the RDRS pilot service and continuing to promote voluntary registrar participation beyond its initial two-year term until a long-term permanent solution or a successor system is agreed upon.
The draft also recommends upgrading the service to improve the user interface, enable API access for both requestors and registrars, and enabling authentication for users starting with law enforcement.
ccTLD registries should also be allowed to opt in, the report says. Currently, the voluntary service is limited to ICANN-accredited gTLD registrars. At the last count, 78 registrars were participating, covering 47% of all registered gTLD domains.
Five of the committee’s recommendations reached “Full Consensus”, the highest degree of agreement, while one recommendation, discussing future policy work, had some objections and only received “Consensus”.
The report will now be put to the GNSO Council before going to the ICANN board of directors for possible final approval.
Apart from the ongoing running costs, some of the recommendations would require software development work, which costs money.
At the last count, there were 11,360 registered RDRS users and since launch they had submitted 3,344 data requests. That works out to a mean average of 167 per month.
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