From December 1st this year ICANN Corporation introduces new rules of domain name transfer. More specifically, the previously existing Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy now applies to transfers between registrants too. In practice, this means that when Whois data of the domain name owner is changed they would have to confirm these changes by responding to an email, SMS or a phone call from the registrar.
The reason for introduced measures is the desire to protect domain names from theft. At the same time, new rules could be inconvenient to the domain name owners in many ways. ICANN explains that owners will have to confirm the changes related to the transfer of names in these situations: “a change to the Registered Name Holder’s name or organization that does not appear to be merely a typographical correction (single-character); any change to the Registered Name Holder’s name or organization that is accompanied by a change of address or phone number; any change to the Registered Name Holder’s email address.”
Obviously, sending confirmation requests for such actions and the necessity to answer these questions actually makes domains more secured from getting stolen. However, Domain Incite points out that the life of registrants will become more complex too. For example, if a woman owns a domain name and then gets married, changes her last name and makes necessary changes in Whois data, she will have to answer confirmation request from the registrar even though she’s not selling the domain neither she is conducting a transfer. This will also happen when transfers between parent and subsidiary companies occur. We shouldn’t forget though that confirmation requests could end up as spam or just go undetected, which will make the domain name transfer simply impossible.
However, many large registrars found a way out of the situation. New ICANN’s transfer policy introduces a status of “Designated Agent”, who will approve Whois data changes on behalf of registrants. EuroDNS, for example, has already used this option. They highlighted that confirming emails and calls are excessive hassle and unilaterally announced itself a “Designated Agent” of all its clients. It seems that Tucows, NameCheap, Name.com and some other large registrars are willing to follow the same path.
