Eleven notable domain registrars have abandoned ICANN’s pilot Registration Data Request Service, substantially reducing its usefulness.
In June, 11 accredited registrars pulled their support for the voluntary service, which is designed to give law enforcement, IP owners, and security researchers an easier way to request unredacted Whois records.
Team Internet is out, taking with it its registrars 1API, Internet BS, Key-Systems GmbH, Key-Systems LLC, Moniker, and TLD Registrar Solutions.
Newfold Digital exited with Network Solutions, Register․com, and PublicDomainRegistry․com. Separately, Corporation Service Company and RegistryGate both also quit the system.
CSC Digital Brand Services (UK) was the only newly added participant, according to ICANN’s monthly status report.
The sum of all this is that there are now 78 participating registrars, compared to 88 at the end of May, and they now only represent 47% of all registered gTLD domains, down from 54%.
That’s the lowest level of participation since RDRS launched in late November 2023 and the first time it’s dropped below half of all registered gTLD domains.
Usage of RDRS has dropped to a whole new low. There were only 68 requests for Whois records in June, down from the previous low of 91 in March.
Perhaps counter-intuitively, the number of searches that resulted in “Registrar Not Supported” errors remained static at 16%, tying for the lowest ratio across the entire pilot to date.
ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee recently said it wants ICANN to consider making RDRS mandatory for all registrars.
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