[gnso-dow123] Information concerning upgrade to .name Whois

["Simon Sheard" <simon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear all,
GNR is in the final stages of releasing into public beta our upgraded Whois
service, the Tiered Protected Privacy Whois (TPPW). It incorporates the
concepts of our amended Appendix O to the ICANN Contract.  For the purpose
of the work of the ongoing Whois taskforce, I thought it could be helpful to
offer our view of the philosophy (and legal framework) behind our TPPW to
the taskforce. Registries are not equal, and .name is unique in many ways.
For Global Name Registry the implementation of Whois on .name is subject to
three important considerations, which are as follows:

1) What is appropriate for the jurisdiction of the Registry

2) What is appropriate in the light of the ICANN agreement

3) What is useful for Registrars and the public at large

On 1), we have been in extensive discussions with the UK Information
Commissioner who has expressed discomfort with the entire idea of Whois. At
a bare minimum, the possibility of automated access to private details like
name, address and phone numbers is likely a breach of the UK Data Protection
act. In response and to strike a balance with 2), our TPPW blocks automated
access, and removes address and phone numbers of Registrants from all open
query types. It also creates a "detailed" query type which is only
accessible to identifiable, trackable (via sign-up and payment), and
non-automated entities. For 3), we have insured that there is a "standard"
query which allows registrants to see which registrar their domain name is
registered with, as well as basic status information like expiry date.

Our TPPW will become available in Public Beta very shortly, and we expect it
to replace the existing whois in early Q2.

Sincerely

Simon