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Registrar Across Field Address Validation

The WHOIS Accuracy Program Specification of the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement requires registrars to validate and verify defined certain data fields, such as including phone number, email and postal address. Included in the validation requirements of the Specification is the Across Field Address Validation (AFAV) requirement. This is a open requirement for AFAV requires registrars to validate the registrant’s postal address fields , and confirm consistency to confirm a practical relationship across fields, i.e.g. street exists in city, city exists in state/province, city matches postal code.

The 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement requires ICANN to review these requirements in consultation with the Registrar WHOIS Validation Working Group to identify a set of tools that will enable accredited registrars to complete these validation actions. These actions should contribute to increased accuracy rating of physical address information associated with the registered name holder. ICANN has identified a set of commercial providers offering global address validation tool-sets via an Request for Information that was published in October 2017. If To implement this requirement successfully, the Registrar WHOIS Validation Working Group and ICANN are able to must mutually agree upon a solution (s) that is technically and commercially feasible all applicable documentation will be published accordingly. 

In 2017, ICANN identified, via a Request for Information (RFI), a set of commercial providers offering global address validation toolsets. The intent of the Request for Information was to determine if commercials providers offer related solutions and to gather information for review between ICANN and the Registrar RFI was to gather information in order to determine whether commercial providers offered feasible solutions. After review of the potential solutions available, mutual agreement between ICANN org and the WHOIS Validation Working Group was not achieved. 

Ultimately, the objective of ICANN is to come to a mutual agreement that will result in ICANN org will continue to look for technically and commercially feasible solutions that will enable mutual agreement, as defined by a minimum of two-thirds (2/3) vote by ICANN-accredited registrars in support of the defined solution(s) by the ICANN Accredited Registrars.

The Registrar WHOIS Validation Working Group and ICANN may mutually agree upon and approve a designated of Address Validation Service Providers . Registrars may choose a provider(s) and implement the address validation tool-set(s) based on the obligation within the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement.

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At present, implementation activities surrounding the AFAV requirement are on hold, due to issues surrounding data protection, the Temporary Specification on Registration Data, and ongoing related work among ICANN and community members.