GDPR and the death of Whois: #3 in 2017

This is the eighth in a series covering the top stories on DNW in 2017, as ranked by pageviews.

Whois will likely undergo a major overhaul in 2018 thanks to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which goes into full effect on May 25. A story I wrote regarding the topic was among the most-viewed stories on DNW in 2017.

GDPR is a law to protect the personal information and privacy of European Union residents. It will impact firms around the world that handle data of EU residents. This includes domain name registrars and registries that process domain name registrations.

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The most visible impact for domain names will be Whois since Whois is essentially a public database of personal information. Many questions remain surrounding what registrars and registries will need to do to comply with the law. ICANN, for its part, doesn’t seem to know and has stated it will be lenient on contract compliance regarding Whois as it seeks to figure it out.

GDPR will continue to be a big story in 2018. Stay tuned.