.uk Whois changes (22nd May)

[TinkyWinky]

Ok so basically - there's no no way of contacting a domain owner unless they have opted in to having their information live.

Nothing in 'registrar' settings we can use?

PRSS useless now then to?

We can of course email [email protected] once...?

 

[Edwin]

Ok so basically - there's no no way of contacting a domain owner unless they have opted in to having their information live.

Nothing in 'registrar' settings we can use?

PRSS useless now then to?

We can of course email [email protected] once...?

Not unless you happen to know someone who has a naughty copy of that particular Whois record. Which is pretty dangerous given GDRP, but...

(I’ll point out immediately that I don’t have such a thing, nor do I know anyone who does. I was speaking in theory...)

 

[Murray]

We can of course email [email protected] once...?

Contacting someone to acquire a domain name isn't the same rules as trying to sell surely? or is it

 

[Edwin]

Contacting someone to acquire a domain name isn't the same rules as trying to sell surely? or is it

It depends on how “unsolicited” is defined, I guess. Because you’re still reaching out to somebody who’s had no previous contact with you and doesn’t know you. Even if the contact might be beneficial, that’s not necessarily enough to make it “acceptable”. Only a lawyer would know for sure...

 

[Murray]

It depends on how “unsolicited” is defined, I guess. Because you’re still reaching out to somebody who’s had no previous contact with you and doesn’t know you. Even if the contact might be beneficial, that’s not necessarily enough to make it “acceptable”. Only a lawyer would know for sure...

Oh dear, what a world we're living in

 

[Edwin]

This may be worth a quick read...
https://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/...-emails-and-letters--what-do-you-need-to-know

 

[Lovekraft]

This may be worth a quick read...
https://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/...-emails-and-letters--what-do-you-need-to-know

And from that article and like others I've read nobody seems to have any real idea what is considered "legitimate interest in marketing":

"In relation to unsolicited marketing by mail, an agent can rely on GDPR-compliant consent or may seek to rely upon a legitimate interest in marketing, but they must stop processing that data if the individual objects. "

I've seen some articles go as far as to say this is a workaround for B2B marketing to individuals so long as you disclose it in your email signature that it is "legitimate interests" to the person receiving the email but I want to find more solid proof of that being the case and find better examples of what legitimate interests are considered to be. I'm afraid the official guidance is making no sense to me!

 

[Systreg]

GDPR is aimed mainly at businesses, and they can be fined heavily, but what about the average person in the street. I never contact end users, but say I had a domain name and sent an email to someone asking if they wanted to buy it, I wouldn't be including any opt out of the email stuff, just a bog standard email, so I assume the receiver of the email would have the option to report the email they received, if so, what happens then?

Who then is going to do what exactly, is some organisation going to contact me to tell me off for mailing someone

 

[Lovekraft]

GDPR is aimed mainly at businesses, and they can be fined heavily, but what about the average person in the street. I never contact end users, but say I had a domain name and sent an email to someone asking if they wanted to buy it, I wouldn't be including any opt out of the email stuff, just a bog standard email, so I assume the receiver of the email would have the option to report the email they received, if so, what happens then?

Who then is going to do what exactly, is some organisation going to contact me to tell me off for mailing someone

Theoretically yeah. If someone wanted to report you, they would go through ICO (https://ico.org.uk/).

Nobody knows at this stage what warnings / penalties will be imposed and what it will take to receive them. Surely sending the very occasional email would be ok but all it would take is one person to report you and you might just come under their scrutiny. Madness.

 

[Whois-Search]

A good guide here to consent and legitimate interests:

https://dma.org.uk/article/dma-gdpr-guidance-consent-and-legitimate-interests

There is a legitimate interests test on page 16:

https://dma.org.uk/uploads/misc/5ae...ent-and-legitimate-interest_5ae1fbf5c6066.pdf

However if they think I’m going to fill that in (even mentally) every time I send an email they got another thing coming

 

[donton]

I’m looking at a .co.uk domain for a new business venture and there’s a very basic holding page on there (no contact info or page). The Whois is now totally obscured, and I tried all the usual info, hello, contact @thedomain and they all bounced.

At this point, do I just give up? I literally can’t think of any other way to find the owner :/

 

[Whois-Search]

I’m looking at a .co.uk domain for a new business venture and there’s a very basic holding page on there (no contact info or page). The Whois is now totally obscured, and I tried all the usual info, hello, contact @thedomain and they all bounced.

At this point, do I just give up? I literally can’t think of any other way to find the owner :/

Some of the larger registrars are starting to put up GDPR webforms like this:

https://www.domain-contact.org

That one is for Key-Systems but it depends on the registrar at the moment.

Failing that and if it’s not a known tag holder on here...

Few tools you can try:

Reverse IP Whois https://domainbigdata.com

Website Archive https://archive.org

DNS trails https://securitytrails.com/dns-trails

Cached Whois http://research.domaintools.com/research/whois-history/

Other names on tag https://dnshistory.org/dns-records/domain.co.uk

 

[donton]

Thanks for the suggestions @Whois-Search - have tried on all the suggested links and still no closer.

I paid for a report from Domain Tools, but it seems the registrant used a company name in the registrant field, despite selecting 'individual' as the registrant type. I've put the company into Google and it doesn't seem to exist/has never existed, so back to square one...

Thank you for your help, however. Will bookmark your post for future use in such situations!

 

[donton]

Quick update: I was a bit premature writing off the Domain Tools report last night, when I went through it a second time, properly, the owner's info was in there. So thanks for the heads up, @Whois-Search !

At $49 a go it's a bit pricey - but it looks like they've just done snapshots of Nominet Whois records over the last 10 years or so. The most recent snapshot for the domain I'm hunting was in May 2018 - so it was very up to date. I can't see any other way to get that info at the moment, so going forward I'll be using the Domain Tools reports - albeit sparingly.

 

[Edwin]

Good that you found a lead, but I can’t imagine DomainTools will be able to keep their UK data long. One GDPR challenge and they’ll dump it like it’s radioactive. After all, it’s against Nominet’s T&C to store it. The fact it’s behind a paywall doesn’t change anything.

 

[Admin]

i wonder how GDPR is going to affect people like @Federer

 

[Admin]

So I've released a domain to someone today, they did a 'transfer in' at 123 reg. Am I right in saying there is no way that I can check whether the transfer has completed? How long should it take?

 

[ian]

So I've released a domain to someone today, they did a 'transfer in' at 123 reg. Am I right in saying there is no way that I can check whether the transfer has completed? How long should it take?

Do you mean whether they've changed the registrant details, rather than just the registrar? If so, I guess the 'domain manager' is the place to look (not the tag web domain manager, just the one linked to your log in email address), as it will still show in there if still associated with your email.

 

[Admin]

Do you mean whether they've changed the registrant details, rather than just the registrar? If so, I guess the 'domain manager' is the place to look (not the tag web domain manager, just the one linked to your log in email address), as it will still show in there if still associated with your email.

Yes. As a tag holder if I change the tag its instant. The out of our control part is for another registrar to process the transfer in request to the registrant. There is now no way for a 3rd party to check on status of the transfer...well done GDPR. More nonsesene made up by people inventing bad ideas to justify their jobs .

 

[Skinner]

I was chatting a guy at my local waitrose, he was saying there are about 50 new rules GDPR has introduced to every "partner" (what they call staff) at waitrose, the one which blew his mind was...

If they find a wallet, keys, phone, even if there is a piece of a paper saying if found, phone they are still unable to phone as a business to tell you they have your property because they don't have permission.

Speaking of helpful GDPR.