Whois is retiring: the RDAP protocol is coming

The last and important update took place in May 2018 relating to the transfer procedure and policy of data publication in the whois following the entry into force of the GDPR.

What does the new year have in store for us? I warn you that in the first months of 2020 new scenarios will open up regarding Whois and the new RDAP protocol, topics that will dominate in this end-of-year article.

Here's what I'll tell you about specifically:

What is Whois and what is it for?

The current limits of Whois

The advantages of the new protocol

What is Whois and what is it for? Whois is a network protocol which, through queries called queries of specific databases, allows you to view which provider an internet address or domain belongs to. The information shown relates to: the date of creation (registration) and expiry of the domain at the Registry. Before the GDPR, data relating to the registrant, administrative and technical contact of the domain, were also accessible, without prejudice to the obscuring of data (called domain privacy) requested by the domain registrant to the provider.

The world of the web runs fast and it is clear that the current Whois protocol is not keeping up with the times. The Whois protocol has been the system with which information relating to IP addresses or internet domains has been managed and shared worldwide for over 20 years.

Nowadays, we are all more careful about whether or not to provide consent to the processing of personal data, in particular for marketing actions and user profiling (see for example cookies) and the Whois protocol certainly does not respect the confidentiality criterion that we care so much about.

The new RDAP protocol After 20 years of well-deserved service, Whois will be retired in favor of the RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol). The new reference model will allow access to data only to authorized users, unlike the current protocol which does not provide for any verification or authorization.

The advantages of the new protocol There is no doubt that the new protocol will guarantee greater privacy to the owners of the domain. In the past, several doubts have been raised about Whois compliance with the GDPR and the RDAP protocol seems to be the solution. Icann has already begun to propose to the various Registries the adoption of the new system for a question of technological updating but in particular to be compliant with the European regulation (GDPR).

The introduction of the new protocol is not immediate, it is expected that the new agreement between Icann and the various Registries will be published between the end of February and the beginning of March 2020.

At this point we just have to wait intrigued and confident, in the coming months I will take care of recovering more information in order to update you promptly.