Uniregistry makes WHOIS hidden by default but you can opt-out

Uniregistry announced today to make domain name WHOIS hidden/redacted by default. The good news is that you can opt-out of the default redacted whois and keep WHOIS of your domains public.

WHOIS changes will take effect on February 27th. This seems like a short notice.

From this date, your data will be automatically updated to not display personal information. If you would like to have your contact information for your domain name to continue to be published in the WHOIS data search, you MUST log in to your account and consent to WHOIS data publication at your earliest opportunity. Instructions for ensuring the uninterrupted publication of your WHOIS data are provided here.

Here is the complete announcement Uniregistry made today:

Dear Uniregistry customer,

As you are probably aware, the subject of data privacy continues to be a focus of various regional and national regulation. Policies for balancing these regulations with interests of users of internet services generally, and domain registrants in particular, continue to be the subject of ongoing policy debate. The Cayman Islands, where we are based, has recently passed a Data Protection Law which will take effect in 2019. The Cayman Islands Data Protection Law is generally consistent with other recent national and regional data protection measures enacted in Europe and other jurisdictions. In preparation for the effective date of the Cayman Islands Data Protection Law, and to accomodate recent temporary policies imposed by ICANN, we are making some significant changes to the way your domain registration data is processed by us, and we have updated our Privacy Policy.

First and foremost, we are adopting a default redaction policy concerning your public WHOIS data for all gTLD registrations and for such ccTLD registrations in which the provision of public WHOIS data is not required as an express condition by the relevant national authorities for such ccTLD registrations. By default we will not publish your personal contact information in response to WHOIS inquiries, unless you have specifically consented to such publication. In the case of any ccTLD domain names for which the relevant national authority requires public WHOIS data, we cannot force other countries to change their laws, and you should avoid registering domain names in those ccTLDs if you do not consent to their conditions.

We understand that these policy changes are not welcome to all users. The business of domain registration is, after all, the business of confirming that you, and no one else, is the registrant of your domain name. It is inherent, in order to register a domain name to you, that we know who you are and how to contact you to confirm you as the registrant of your domain name. In response to similar changes in the industry, there have been complaints by domain registrants that they are unable to provide others with confirmation that they are, in fact, the registrants of their domain name. Likewise, there have been complaints that domain registrars have hi-jacked access to domain registrants, or have made it impossible for others to contact them. We believe the best way to balance these concerns is to put you in control of whether and how your domain name registration is published in WHOIS, and otherwise handled by us.

WHOIS changes will take effect on February 27th. From this date, your data will be automatically updated to not display personal information. If you would like to have your contact information for your domain name to continue to be published in the WHOIS data search, you MUST log in to your account and consent to WHOIS data publication at your earliest opportunity. Instructions for ensuring the uninterrupted publication of your WHOIS data are provided here.

Additionally, you may opt-out from the new default option by updating your privacy option at anytime.

If you do not desire to have your gTLD domain registration information published in response to WHOIS inquiries, then you do not need to take any action, and your personal data will no longer appear in response to them. Instead, we will provide a web form through which we will forward messages from persons seeking to contact you about your domain name. We will maintain a temporary log of metadata concerning forwarded messages for diagnostic and abuse investigation purposes, but we will not maintain a copy of the contents of any such communications. If you do not want us to forward communications to you from the contact form, and you would prefer to be directly contacted by anyone seeking to contact you as the registrant of your domain name, then you may opt out of default data redaction, as mentioned above.

If you are a user of Uniregistry Marketplace services, and have listed your domain names for transfer to potential third parties in the Uniregistry Marketplace, some additional considerations apply. In order to contract with us or with other parties to offer or sell your domain name in the Uniregistry Marketplace, it is of course necessary to identify yourself as a buyer and/or seller in the Marketplace, and to be able to have sufficient contact information to seek dispute resolution in connection with such disputes as may arise in relation to transactions conducted in the Marketplace. For the use of Uniregistry brokerage services, it is of course necessary for your broker to be able to review inquiries made via the Marketplace concerning your domain name, and to communicate with you about those inquiries.

Finally, we do not intend our Privacy Policy to become a vehicle for abuse. You do not have a privacy right in data which is falsified, inaccurate, or misappropriated. We will continue to investigate and act upon reports of abuse; comply with duly-served warrants, subpoenas and other legal processes; refer probable illegal activities to the appropriate authorities, and comply with dispute resolution procedures applicable to domain names registered with us.