If you were at Summit last week, you likely heard some rumblings in hallways and relevant sessions over this "ICANN/WHOIS" thing. That's because, for the past few months, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a charitable association under Californian law that administers certain top-level domain names, has been involved in an overhaul of WHOIS. This search service publicly lists the names and contact details of domain name holders. ICANN published a new temporary model Feb. 28 that substantially modifies the philosophy of WHOIS. The model, dubbed "Calzone," takes an innovative approach to confidentiality. ICANN has thus sounded the death-knell of having an open-access WHOIS by default. This is a major change in vision and comes in the wake of various correspondence sent by the Article 29 Working Party to the American regulatory authority. In this exclusive for The Privacy Advisor, Florent Gastaud has the relevant details.
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