ICANN’s Strategic Initiative for the Decommissioning of the WHOIS Protocol and the Transition to a Modernized RDAP Framework
The Expert Working Group (EWG) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recommended on 24 June 2013 that WHOIS should be scrapped. It recommends that WHOIS be replaced with a system that keeps information secret from most Internet users, and only discloses information for “permissible purposes”.[42] ICANN’s list of permissible purposes includes domain-name research, domain-name sale and purchase, regulatory enforcement, personal data protection, legal actions, and abuse mitigation.[43] Although WHOIS has been a key tool of journalists in determining who was disseminating certain information on the Internet,[44] the use of WHOIS by the free press is not included in ICANN’s proposed list of permissible purposes.
The EWG collected public input on the initial report until 13 September 2013. Its final report was issued on 6 June 2014, without meaningful changes to the recommendations.[45] As of March 2015, ICANN is in the “process of re-inventing WHOIS,” working on “ICANN WHOIS Beta.”[46][47]
On January 19, 2023, ICANN opened voting on a global amendment to all its registry and registrar agreements. In it they defined an RDAP Ramp-Up Period of 180 days starting with the effectiveness of this amendment. 360 days after this period is defined as the WHOIS The Services Sunset Date marks the point when registries and registrars are no longer required to provide a WHOIS service, transitioning exclusively to the RDAP service. All necessary voting thresholds were met within the 60-day voting period, leading to the amendment’s approval by ICANN. Board. The date for WHOIS Sunset for gTLDs was set as 28 January 2025.[48]
Deep-Dive Analysis: Unveiling Key Insights in the Initial Audit Phase
If we conduct a more in-depth analysis, certain conclusions and critical insights can be systematically identified and established during the initial phase of the audit process. This preliminary audit serves as a foundational assessment, leveraging data-driven methodologies, advanced analytical frameworks, and compliance verification techniques to determine key findings at an early stage.
The following stakeholders 25 have accountability roles in the RDS ecosystem:
a) RDS Users Seeking Data (USDs) – enumerated in Section III
b) Registrants
c) Registrars26
d) Registries27
e) Registration Directory Service Provider
f) ICANN
g) Privacy or Proxy Service Providers
h) Secure Protected Credential Approver
i) Validators
j) RDS User Accreditors
k) Purpose-Based Contacts
l) Escrow Providers
115. The RDS must establish pro
A decade after the extensive beta-phase experimentation and rigorous evaluation of its feasibility, the decision was officially reached following comprehensive analysis, stakeholder consultations, and technological advancements.
The Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) is a computer network communications protocol standardized by a working group at the Internet Engineering Task Force in 2015, after experimental developments and thorough discussions. It is a successor to the WHOIS protocol, used to look up relevant registration data from such Internet resources as domain names, IP addresses, and autonomous system numbers. why the
Internet governance took an extended period of time to reach a decision, due to the complex considerations and extensive deliberations required to address the various technical, regulatory, and stakeholder interests involved.
Now: https://lookup.icann.org/
ICANN Board !!!!!!
