Re: GoDaddy deleting most ancillary registration contact information

[Royce Williams via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>]

On Thu, Jul 17, 2025 at 1:43 PM Mel Beckman via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>
wrote:

[snip from GoDaddy]

Currently, we collect Registrant, Administrative, Billing, and Technical
> contacts. Going forward, we'll collect the minimum data required by each
> domain registry.
>
> Most registries will be moving to the minimum data set, so Technical,
> Administrative, and Billing contacts will no longer be collected or
> displayed in WhoIs/RDDS.
>
> On or after August 21, 2025, we'll delete extra contact data and the
> registrant fax number from our systems unless the registry specifically
> requires that data.

[snip, then from Mel]


> Has anybody else got ideas on the impact of this going forward? I’m not in
> the domain resale business, but I am in the business of troubleshooting
> network problems. :-)

One thing that comes to mind: the (admittedly long-tail) activity of
reclamation of fallow / misfiled / "mis-owned" domains.

For good or ill, the previous WHOIS model had its own redundancy -- three
different contacts, two of which with authority to make technical changes,
as well as the power conferred by being the named registrant. On at least
three occasions, after M&A activity, I've had to leverage any and all of
these to "fix" a domain's ownership, in order to make changes -- in some
cases years, or in at least one case *decades* later. This has involved
everything from recreating dead email addresses, to calling people who
didn't work there anymore, to digging up contracts and printing them on
letterhead, etc. ... all to restore the power to make changes.

Of course, that's me as an ISP-scarred end user, not as a registry
operator. Maybe these alternate paths are an attack surface that should be
eliminated. But "this entity used to have the authority to manage this
domain, and I am the direct descendant of that entity, lemme in" is gonna
get harder.

So while I can see removing the WHOIS from visibility, *deleting* so that
even the *registrar* doesn't have it anymore feels like it destroys
information that would still have value.

Royce
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