The General Regulation on Personal Data Protection — GDPR — will enter into force on Friday, May 25. This regulation will have a direct impact on the WHOIS service operated by the Czech National Domain Administrator CZ.NIC. The WHOIS service is used to search for data such as the name of the registered domain, the domain holder’s name, or the domain name registration period. Changes to WHOIS searches were introduced by CZ.NIC already today, on May 16.

“So far, user information in WHOIS was public, while there was an option to hide certain data. Because of GDPR, contact data will be hidden automatically starting today. However, this does not apply to the contact’s name and, in case of an unverified contact, to its address,” said Martin Peterka, the operating director of the CZ.NIC Association. “We have informed domain registrars on the changes in the WHOIS service at our seminar. Before putting the modified system into actual operation, we introduced it to the registrars in a test environment, where they were able to try everything in advance.”

Although the data will be hidden automatically, it does not necessarily mean that it will always be unavailable. Those interested in publishing their WHOIS data will be able to apply for it via their registrar.