Domain investors have been utilizing the information provided by the WHOIS database for well over two decades.
Despite the fact that such public domain registration information was regularly abused, the information itself helped engage professionals, in a variety of business transactions, including that of domain name sales.
The introduction of the GDPR in Europe has effectively gutted the WHOIS database.
This is the angle that the Leading-Edge Law Group PLC is taking in an article, explaining the many pitfalls of the GDPR.
GDPR data – Photo by Jose A.Thompson on Unsplash
John B. Farmer, attorney with the law firm group, says:
Cybersecurity has been weakened. Many internet security professionals say open WHOIS information is critical to combating cybercrime, such as phishing and malware. They use such information to track down and defeat threats.
Spam may slightly decrease. ICANN found open WHOIS records produce some spam traffic, but a strong majority of spam results from other sources of email addresses. Unless you use an email address only to register a domain name and for no other purpose, you will get lots of spam because of those other uses.
Law offices that provide trademark services for their clients, are at a loss too:
Trademark infringements will be harder to nip in the bud. Trademark professionals use WHOIS records to protect their client’s trademarks — their business, product and service names. For example, my law firm uses this information to send a warning email to anyone who registers a domain name confusingly similar to one of our client’s trademarks.
To read the full article, click here.
