Thu 4. Jul 2024, 10:18
The usage figures for the WHOIS successor "Registration Data Request Service" (RDRS) remain sobering: six months after the start of the two-year test phase, the number of requests fell to a record low.
With the application of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), many domain registrars had to remove personal data that was previously publicly available to everyone in the WHOIS directory within a few seconds. Nevertheless, there was a need to access the non-public part of the WHOIS data, for example for law enforcement authorities and to assert civil law claims. ICANN's solution was RDRS, a free ticket system that processes all requests for non-public gTLD registration data. The RDRS connects the enquirer with the ICANN-accredited registrar responsible for a domain under a generic ending, provided the latter participates in this service. All communication and data transfer between the requester and the domain registrar responsible for a domain takes place outside the RDRS system. ICANN therefore does not store the non-public WHOIS data centrally, but merely enables the sending and receiving of requests for a domain with a generic top level domain via a single platform via the RDRS. The service does not guarantee access to the requested registration data. Ultimately, it is up to the registrar to decide whether to comply with or reject the request in accordance with the applicable data protection laws. However, requestors should not hope for a quick response. In those cases in which the request for disclosure of WHOIS data was rejected, it took 11.26 days from the request to the response in April 2024; if the request was approved, it even took 14.09 days, i.e. over two weeks.
On June 27, 2024, ICANN drew a first interim conclusion after six months of pilot operation, and the results are sobering. The Internet administration emphasizes that it has promoted the RDRS at numerous events such as the ICANN APAC-TWNIC Engagement Forum (Taipei), the Contracted Parties Summit (Paris), the Middle East DNS Forum (Morocco), the International Trademark Association Annual Meeting (Atlanta) and a webinar by eco, the Association of the Internet Industry. So far, however, only 4,018 user accounts have been set up in six months, via which 1,215 requests have been submitted, i.e. around 202 requests per month. The trend points to a further decline: in May 2024, there were only 156 requests, the lowest number ever, 46 of which came from law enforcement authorities and a further 37 from trademark owners or their legal representatives. In May 2024, only around 20 percent of the requests were successful. Overall, ICANN was able to slightly increase the number of participating registrars to 88; with the inclusion of one registrar belonging to Alibaba in particular, they cover 59% of all domains with generic endings. However, this also means that if the registrar responsible for a domain belongs to the remaining 41 percent, an RDRS request will be unsuccessful.
The enhancements that ICANN is working on to improve the functionality of the system include the inclusion of the address and telephone number of the requestor, the addition of a request date and optionally the company or organization to which the requestor belongs; it should also be possible to display all requests without filtering. There is no mention of speeding up processing, probably because ICANN cannot influence this. It remains to be seen whether ICANN will maintain the test phase for the full two years.
The ICANN announcement can be found at:
https://www.icann.org/en/blogs/details/ ... 06-2024-en