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That would be an odd regression; I thought current GDPR mandated whois privacy?


Yes, the current status is that the GDPR basically outlaws whois as "Domain holders must publish public contact information". ICANN's plan B, after failing to fight that requirement, is that registrars must hold contact information and provide it to parties with legitimate interests. The EU privacy regulators have been clear in their interpretation that IP lawyers do not have sufficient "legitimate interests" to be party to such a system, though they are ok with law enforcement having access. Part of that argument is IP lawyers are such a broad group as to make the information de facto public.

Anyway, this proposal seems to be basically a GDPR exception to make "whois" in some form allowable, which is backsliding on the current state.


GDPR contains contradictions.

Does your website's Data Protection Officer have a right to keep their identity secret?




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