ICANN gives Whois privacy services breathing room on fresh transfer policy

Board chairman instructs ICANN to defer compliance on part of fresh transfer policy.

On December 1, a fresh domain name transfer policy went into effect that requires both the previous and fresh registrant of a domain name to approve changes to certain registrant information.

This creates an unintended headache for whois privacy and proxy services, as the approval would be required whenever privacy is added or removed. (Learn more regarding this in DNW Podcast #111.)

Yesterday, ICANN chairman Stephen Crocker informed GNSO Council chair James Bladel that he would instruct ICANN’s compliance group to defer enforcement actions on the fresh transfer policy as it relates to privacy and proxy services.

This gives privacy and proxy services some breathing room while a fresh solution is devised.

The deferral does not appear to contemplate a second challenge for some proxy services, still. Some of these services cycle through masked registrant email addresses as a way to cut down on spam. Technically, every time a fresh email is added to the registrant in whois, the transfer policy approval process will be triggered.