What you need to do NOW to prepare for GDPR: Domainers
Take these steps to avoid headaches later.
The deadline to comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is quickly approaching. Domain name registrars are announcing changes and implementing them within the next few weeks. Here’s what you need to do as a domain investor to be prepared.
Transfer your domain names. If you have domain names that you might want to transfer to a fresh registrar within the next couple of months, do it now. If the personal information in Whois is obscured (as is likely), transferring many domains (counting .com) will be hard.
We are likely to see a variety of approaches to handling transfers. The bottom line is that it might be difficult to move your domains between registrars post-GDPR, so do it now.
Add two-factor authentication and lock your domains. A lack of personal data in Whois is likely to increase domain theft and make it challenging to track down stolen domain names. Changes in how some registrars handle domain transfers could also increase the number of domain thefts.
Don’t take any chances. Make sure your security is up-to-date.
Download any Whois data you need. If you use a program like Watch My Domains, now is the time to pull in the latest Whois records regarding your domain names. This will be very difficult later this month.
Add context to stop an influx of UDRPs. Complainants right now investigate domain name owners ahead of filing UDRPs (cybersquatting complaints). This allows them to determine if the owner might have a legitimate interest in the domain (e.g. a guy named Andrew owns a domain with Andrew in it) and potentially determine why they purchased the domain. This will be difficult without personal information in Whois.
You can do a couple of things to prepare. First, see if your registrar will let you opt-in to having your Whois info displayed. Second, consider changing the content of your parked pages to make sure they reflect a proper use of the domain.
On that note, be sure that people can contact you through your parked page. It will become difficult for them to reach you through your Whois record.
Get a subscription to historical Whois data. While GDPR is going to hurt DomainTools and DomainIQ in the long run, they will actually become more critical to your business for a least the short term.
When you buy a domain name, you’ll want to verify who owns it. If you can’t do that through the live Whois, looking at historical Whois information is going to be creditical.
