GDPR, a European Union concoction of rules about data privacy and personal data management, went live on May 25th.
The two year old amalgam of Draconean data rules remained under the radar of most domain industry professionals until late last year, when its imminent consequences began to unravel.
By then, it was too late for ICANN, that waited until the last minute to attempt the drafting of a special transitional period regarding WHOIS data, and how registrars should store it.
In essence, bureaucrats and Eurocrats destroyed the WHOIS model for the rest of us.
A quick search at “GDPR domains” reveals some astonishing numbers.
Using the services of ZFBot, we were able to see that there are 210 GDPR domains that match exactly that, in all the major TLDs and gTLDs that ZFBot tracks:
gdpr.academy
gdpr.accountant
gdpr.africa
gdpr.agency
gdpr.amsterdam
gdpr.app
gdpr.army
gdpr.associates
gdpr.attorney
gdpr.band
gdpr.beer
gdpr.berlin
gdpr.bid
gdpr.bike
gdpr.biz
gdpr.blue
gdpr.boston
gdpr.bot
gdpr.broker
gdpr.brussels
gdpr.business
gdpr.buzz
gdpr.cafe
gdpr.camp
gdpr.capital
gdpr.cards
gdpr.care
gdpr.careers
gdpr.cash
gdpr.cat
gdpr.catering
gdpr.center
gdpr.chat
gdpr.cheap
gdpr.church
gdpr.city
gdpr.claims
gdpr.click
gdpr.clinic
gdpr.cloud
gdpr.club
gdpr.coach
gdpr.codes
gdpr.coffee
gdpr.com
gdpr.community
gdpr.company
gdpr.computer
gdpr.consulting
gdpr.contractors
gdpr.cool
gdpr.coop
gdpr.courses
gdpr.cymru
gdpr.date
gdpr.deals
gdpr.delivery
gdpr.dental
gdpr.design
gdpr.digital
gdpr.direct
gdpr.directory
gdpr.doctor
gdpr.dog
gdpr.download
gdpr.education
gdpr.email
gdpr.energy
gdpr.engineer
gdpr.enterprises
gdpr.equipment
gdpr.events
gdpr.exchange
gdpr.expert
gdpr.exposed
gdpr.express
gdpr.fail
gdpr.faith
gdpr.farm
gdpr.finance
gdpr.fit
gdpr.fitness
gdpr.forsale
gdpr.foundation
gdpr.fr
gdpr.fun
gdpr.fyi
gdpr.gallery
gdpr.global
gdpr.gold
gdpr.golf
gdpr.gratis
gdpr.green
gdpr.group
gdpr.guide
gdpr.guru
gdpr.healthcare
gdpr.help
gdpr.horse
gdpr.host
gdpr.house
gdpr.how
gdpr.icu
gdpr.immo
gdpr.info
gdpr.institute
gdpr.insure
gdpr.international
gdpr.investments
gdpr.irish
gdpr.jetzt
gdpr.kim
gdpr.land
gdpr.law
gdpr.lawyer
gdpr.legal
gdpr.life
gdpr.limited
gdpr.link
gdpr.loan
gdpr.lol
gdpr.london
gdpr.love
gdpr.ltd
gdpr.management
gdpr.market
gdpr.marketing
gdpr.media
gdpr.men
gdpr.menu
gdpr.money
gdpr.net
gdpr.network
gdpr.news
gdpr.ninja
gdpr.nu
gdpr.observer
gdpr.onl
gdpr.online
gdpr.org
gdpr.ovh
gdpr.paris
gdpr.partners
gdpr.party
gdpr.photography
gdpr.photos
gdpr.place
gdpr.plus
gdpr.press
gdpr.promo
gdpr.properties
gdpr.pub
gdpr.realty
gdpr.red
gdpr.rentals
gdpr.repair
gdpr.report
gdpr.review
gdpr.reviews
gdpr.rocks
gdpr.run
gdpr.sale
gdpr.school
gdpr.schule
gdpr.science
gdpr.se
gdpr.services
gdpr.sexy
gdpr.shop
gdpr.social
gdpr.software
gdpr.solutions
gdpr.sport
gdpr.srl
gdpr.store
gdpr.stream
gdpr.studio
gdpr.study
gdpr.style
gdpr.supply
gdpr.support
gdpr.systems
gdpr.tax
gdpr.team
gdpr.tech
gdpr.technology
gdpr.tips
gdpr.today
gdpr.tools
gdpr.trade
gdpr.training
gdpr.travel
gdpr.tube
gdpr.university
gdpr.uno
gdpr.us
gdpr.vet
gdpr.video
gdpr.vip
gdpr.vision
gdpr.wales
gdpr.watch
gdpr.webcam
gdpr.website
gdpr.wiki
gdpr.win
gdpr.work
gdpr.works
gdpr.wtf
gdpr.zone
From that list it’s evident that the majority of these registrations are speculative, and while gdpr.com has existed for years, domains such as gdpr.attorney are new.
When searching for “GDPR” at any position in a domain name, the number of registrations skyrockets.
According to ZFBot, there are 4,512 domains that contain GDPR.
Many of these domains are developed into portals that are designed to capture search traffic and convert it into leads, for services such as this.
Recently, a Spanish newspaper published an article about boutique GDPR services that have sprouted in Europe, and even law services that failed to deliver.
It is evident that the GDPR game didn’t end on May 25th; it actually kicked off on that very date. It remains to be seen when the first major GDPR incident, demanding millions of dollars for non-compliance, will occur.
