13:15 IST, 25 October 2025
12:15 UTC, 25 October 2025
Liffey A - Level 1 (GNSO)
ID# 17287
Session DetailsThe Registrant Data Request Service (RDRS) is the first pilot project to centralize and standardize the triage of private registration data across registrars that have opted in. By creating a common pathway for registrars to receive requests, it raises fundamental questions about how disclosure decisions are made: when does a requester’s “legitimate interest” outweigh the registrant’s right to privacy, and how should the fundamental rights balancing test be applied across jurisdictions?
In August 2025, the GNSO Standing Committee delivered its report on the RDRS. This session provides an initial human rights impact assessment of the system, asking what aspects of disclosure triage can be standardized in a rights-respecting way beyond the form itself.
The session aims to go beyond the report and situate the conversation on broader challenges. We will explore several challenges such as cases where abuse is real but not obvious outside certain linguistic or cultural contexts (e.g. phishing against banks that are household names in one market but obscure elsewhere); the uneven practices of registries and registrars regarding disclosure.
The discussion will also consider alternatives to disclosure, how DNS challenges can be addressed without exposing registrant data, and what safeguards are needed to prevent a standardized system from being misused. While stakeholder positions diverge (with some press for disclosure, some balance liability and commercial risk, and some insist on protection of domain name registrants and end users’ human rights), the broader question remains: can we have a disclosure system in place that foster accountability and rights protection simultaneously? Is the disclosure system the only way? What are the alternatives?
GNSO Policy Briefing:
https://go.icann.org/gnsobriefingAgenda wiki page:
https://icann-community.atlassian.net/wiki/x/KgDKGg Session Leader: Andrea Glandon
Staff Facilitator: Andrea Glandon
Session RecordingsZoom ArchiveEnglish audio archive
