Afilias amends WHOIS policy for owned TLDs
Less than two months before the entry into force of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Afilias, one of the largest generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry, decided to amend the WHOIS policy for the gTLDs it owns, to comply with a GDPR. In a notification sent to its registrars and quoted by Domain Wire, the company announced that its public WHOIS database with details about domain names would only contain ‘operation technical data (not contact data)’ as of 25 May 2018. Afilias also indicated that it intends to consult the data protection authority in Ireland (where the company is based) to seek further guidance on how to ensure GDPR-compliance and that it continues discussions on law enforcement authorities to determine ways to ensure that these authorities can still access WHOIS data in reasonable conditions. Moreover, no access to WHOIS data will be allowed for individuals/entities associated with ‘trademarks and intellectual property interests’ until a consensus is reached on this matter at international level. The gTLDs affected by the decision are: .info, .mobi, .pro, .poker, .pink, .black, .red, .blue, .kim, .shiksha, .promo, .lgbt, .ski, .bio, .green, .lotto, .pet, .bet, .vote, .voto, .archi, .organic and .llc.
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