The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles, has announced plans to make domain registrars more accountable for those who sign up and register internet domains. WHOIS, the public domain name database of all registrants, will soon require that all new domain owners verify their identities with either a phone number or an email address within 15 days of applying for a new domain. Anyone who fails to do so would see their newly registered domain suspended.
The agreement follows more than a year of negotiations between ICANN and its Registrar Stakeholders Group and represents marked improvements over the last RAA approved in 2009. See the new, fifty-page Accreditation Agreement (RAA)
Aside from these changes, ICANN is also recommending that a new ‘aggregated registration data service’, operated by an independent service provider be created, charged with validating registrants data and protecting it from abuse.
To read the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement, go here:http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/approved-with-specs-27jun13-en.pdf
To watch a video of Generic Domains Division President Akram Atallah’s comments about the 2013 RAA, go here:http://www.icann.org/en/news/press/kits/video-atallah-raa-28jun13-en.htm
FAQ for Domain-Name Holders: http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/transfers/name-holder-faqs