[Rt4-whois] German data commision officier about WHOIS

[Lutz Donnerhacke]

On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 08:49:37PM +0000, Lynn Goodendorf wrote:
> Is there any comment or guidance about domain name registrants
> being natural persons or is the intention that privacy protection
> would extend to organizations and businesses or anyone who may
> collect personal data on a website which requires a domain name
> registration?

I do not see any sign, that they distinguish between natural persons and
companies or possible more classes of owner-c. OTOH modelling the technical
infrastructure will not distinguish either, so the thin WHOIS approach will
prohibit transfering all kinds (personal) data outside of the local law area.

If local law allows access to those data records - possibly grouped into
access classes for natural persons, companies, etc. - it will be granted.

Personally I think that most of them do not understand the full implications
of thin WHOIS to it's extreme: storage of personal data only at the last
point of the reseller chain (you called it "collecting personal data on a
website for domain name registrarion"). But you know, that this is the model
I'm favoring.