In response to requests from the GNSO Council to gather data to inform future WHOIS policy development activities, ICANN has commissioned a series of studies to evaluate different aspects of WHOIS. The WHOIS Privacy and Proxy Relay/Reveal Final Report, prepared by the Interisle Consulting Group in Boston, MA, USA, is the first of these studies to be published by ICANN. The Final Report takes into account public comment received on the Draft Report (See: www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/whois-pp-survey-04jun12-en.htm), and is available at gnso.icann.org/issues/whois/whois-pp-survey-final-report-22aug12-en.pdf [PDF, 1.23 MB]. The Appendices are available at gnso.icann.org/issues/whois/whois-pp-survey-final-report-appendices-22aug12-en.pdf [PDF, 2.11 MB].

This survey was organized to determine the feasibility of conducting a future in-depth study to examine requests to relay communications to, and to reveal the identity of, customers of proxy and privacy services used in connection with gTLD domain names. The Interisle Consulting Group completed the survey in August 2012. The findings suggest that it may be feasible to tailor a future study to provide aggregated data and basic data collection from privacy and proxy providers. Such a future survey is likely to be well regarded by all stakeholders in the community, as it would provide significantly useful data in understanding how privacy and proxy providers manage relay and reveal requests.

The GNSO Council is expected to evaluate whether to recommend a new future study based upon the findings of the WHOIS Privacy and Proxy Survey Final Report.

For more information on the WHOIS Studies, please see: gnso.icann.org/issues/whois/studies.

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-2-07dec12-en.htm