Welcome to the RDS/WHOIS2 Review Wiki!

Subject to applicable laws, ICANN shall use commercially reasonable efforts to enforce its policies relating to registration directory services and shall work with Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees to explore structural changes to improve accuracy and access to generic top-level domain registration data, as well as consider safeguards for protecting such data.

The Board shall cause a periodic review to assess the effectiveness of the then current gTLD registry directory service and whether its implementation meets the legitimate needs of law enforcement, promoting consumer trust and safeguarding registrant data (“Directory Service Review”).

The review team for the Directory Service Review (“Directory Service Review Team”) will consider the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data as defined by the OECD in 1980 and amended in 2013 and as may be amended from time to time.

The Directory Service Review Team shall assess the extent to which prior Directory Service Review recommendations have been implemented and the extent to which implementation of such recommendations has resulted in the intended effect.

The Directory Service Review shall be conducted no less frequently than every five years, measured from the date the previous Directory Service Review Team was convened, except that the first Directory Service Review to be conducted after (1 October 20160 shall be deemed to be timely if the applicable Directory Service Review Team is convened on or before 31 October 2016.

The Registration Directory Services (RDS) Call for Volunteers is looking for applicants for the Review Team and was issued on 28 October 2016.  The deadline for applications is 20 January 2017, 23:59 UTC.

There has also been a proposal discussed by the SO/AC leaders to limit the scope of the RDS Review as concerns have been raised about the expected workload and community bandwidth considering the many WHOIS activities underway. The limited scope proposal was developed based on discussions on how to conduct the RDS Review more effectively as well as minimize the impact on the community. The SOs and ACs are now considering the RDS limited scope proposal and responding with their position.

The table below contains the RDS limited scope proposal as drafted and the SO/AC responses.