WAP (the ICANN "Whois Accuracy Program") - things you may need to know.

[IainB]

The blog.easydns.org has this post: (copied here for information/searching.)
Unfortunately, we have renewed our ICANN Accreditation - blog.easydns.org
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)

May 20, 2015 Mark Jeftovic

easyDNS has met the automatic renewal requirements under our ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement and will thus renew into the 2013 RAA on June 23rd, 2015,

WHY THIS IS UNFORTUNATE
This means that as of June 23rd we will be subject to enforcing the new Whois Accuracy Program (WAP) which was enacted by ICANN earlier this year. All registrants of any domains under which easyDNS is directly accredited (.COM, .NET, .ORG .BIZ, and .INFO) will henceforth be subject to the WAP. (Note, all new GTLDs such as .website, .host and are handled through our OpenSRS Resellers tag and are thus already subject to the WAP).

WHAT IS THE WHOIS ACCURACY PROGRAM?
The Whois Accuracy Program (WAP) was created by ICANN, the body that oversees internet namespaces such as .com/.net/.org etc in co-operation with various Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) in attempt to increase accuracy of data supplied in domain Whois records (see "What is a domain Whois record" below)

In this stage of the program what is required is that at certain specific points in a domain name's like cycle, domain registrants must complete an action that attests to the accuracy of the data supplied in the Registrant data supplied.
Key domain lifecycle points or events that trigger the WAP are:

    Registration, renewal or transfer of a domain name using a new (previously unverified) contact data.
    Modification of a domain's Whois record to new values that are not previously verified.
    If an administrative email such as a renewal notice, or a Whois Data Reminder Policy (WDRP) bounces or is otherwise undeliverable.

In any of these case, a Whois Accuracy Program process is initialized which takes the form of sending emails to the Registrant (yes, this can mean sending this notice to the same address that bounced and started this process in the first place), requesting them to verify their Whois data:

Screen Shot 2015-05-20 at 2.16.34 PM

This normally takes the form of visiting a web page that displays the current Registrant data for a domain, and clicking on a button that asserts that the information is true and accurate:

whois_verification

The initialization of this process commences a time limited process (we refer to this process internally as the "Domain DOOMSDAY CLOCK", which is 15 days in length.

YOUR DOMAIN WILL CEASE FUNCTIONING IF YOU FAIL TO CONFIRM YOUR DATA
If the Whois data remains unverified after 15 days, the Registrar must suspend the domain, causing it to cease resolving over the internet, until such time as it can verified.

THIS IS NOT A SICK JOKE
This is a real policy, enacted by ICANN, which binds all domain registrars accredited unto the 2013 RAA. Many Registrars are already operating under it, and there are already numerous horror stories in which high profile, super busy domains have been shut off and ceased operating because of failure to comply with this policy.

IT IS IMPORTANT FOR ALL EASYDNS MEMBERS TO BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING:
After June 23, 2015 whenever one of your domains hits an event outlined above, you will be receiving an email notice from us asking you to "Click this link to verify your Whois data". Even though it looks like an obvious phishing attempt, it isn't.

THANK ICANN
You can thank ICANN for this policy, we because if it were up to us, and you tasked us with coming up with the most idiotic, damaging, phish-friendy, disaster prone policy that accomplishes less than nothing and is utterly pointless, I question whether we would have been able to pull it off at this level. We're simply out of our league here.
Follow Up Questions:
What is a domain's Whois Record?
You may not be aware of this but every time you register a domain name your registration details (name, address, email, phone, fax) must  be entered in the relevant registries "Whois Database", which is a publicly accessible database and those details are visible by anybody.

For examples see http://www.easywhois.com which is our web based gateway to any whois database in the world.
What if I use Whois Privacy / MyPrivacy For my Domain Records?

If you use Whois Privacy, you will still have to confirm your underlying Registrant data – even though your public Whois records will be those of the privacy proxy.

Filed Under: What's New

[Stoic Joker]

Fine, So now in "honor" of WAP Day ... Every June I'll change my whois information to something new, and completely off the wall because it none of their damn business who I am or where the hell I'm at.

Did the check clear??? Good...now go have a nice chat with the letters F, and O...

[TaoPhoenix]

The blog.easydns.org has this post: (copied here for information/searching.)
Unfortunately, we have renewed our ICANN Accreditation - blog.easydns.org
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)

May 20, 2015 Mark Jeftovic

easyDNS has met the automatic renewal requirements under our ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement and will thus renew into the 2013 RAA on June 23rd, 2015,

WHY THIS IS UNFORTUNATE
This means that as of June 23rd we will be subject to enforcing the new Whois Accuracy Program (WAP) which was enacted by ICANN earlier this year. All registrants of any domains under which easyDNS is directly accredited (.COM, .NET, .ORG .BIZ, and .INFO) will henceforth be subject to the WAP. (Note, all new GTLDs such as .website, .host and are handled through our OpenSRS Resellers tag and are thus already subject to the WAP).
...
IT IS IMPORTANT FOR ALL EASYDNS MEMBERS TO BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING:
After June 23, 2015 whenever one of your domains hits an event outlined above, you will be receiving an email notice from us asking you to "Click this link to verify your Whois data". Even though it looks like an obvious phishing attempt, it isn't.

THANK ICANN
You can thank ICANN for this policy, we because if it were up to us, and you tasked us with coming up with the most idiotic, damaging, phish-friendy, disaster prone policy that accomplishes less than nothing and is utterly pointless, I question whether we would have been able to pull it off at this level. We're simply out of our league here.

-IainB (May 20, 2015, 04:29 PM)

Computing is almost becoming "too hard for humans". So given some "mythical" consortium of the top 25 IT consultants in the world to consult, they ... create this policy. (I had a hard time picking the right word there. I sorta meant even if it has no name, they could do something like a request for feedback and just invite your choice of 25 top IT people in the world. Evil aside, Google's got a few, a couple of the AV companies, a few researchers, and a few people from private companies.)

The problem apparently seems to be that "Humans" includes politicians asking them to do something. Every time we see one of these kinds of things, I'm sure there's at least one smart properly trained lower level guy doing Facepalms and Facedesks. But their voices don't count.


So what does this mean to little guys like me who own a random domain?

[Stoic Joker]

So what does this mean to little guys like me who own a random domain?

-TaoPhoenix (May 21, 2015, 11:46 AM)

It means your right to privilege of privacy (or the illusion thereof) is irrelevant because the NSA, DHS, and other ultra nosey government agencies are gagging hard to create a completely dystopian police state. And it's for the people to understand that the sudden and instantaneous destruction of their livelihood and all they may hold dear - even if entirely "accidental" ... Is necessary and good for the betterment of all, or at least the - more equal - part of the all that matters..

The Whois Accuracy Program (WAP) was created by ICANN, the body that oversees internet namespaces such as .com/.net/.org etc in co-operation with various Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) in attempt to increase accuracy of data supplied in domain Whois records

-the Article

e.g. The Fuzz want to be able to capriciously fast track the incarceration of any site operator at any time for any reason. because...the boogyman damnit!

This is just more pointless idiotic nonsense that is being rammed down people's throats that they need to spit out and scream bloody murder about until everybody up the chain is at risk of permanent hearing loss.