Europe slams WHOIS data demands

A European watchdog has opposed moved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Named and Numbers (ICANN) to force domain name registrars to improve accuracy of the WHOIS database.

Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the European Union’s working party on data protection, told ICANN’s chairman and interim CEO in a letter that the proposed changes to the organisation’s registrar accreditation agreements would likely run contrary to European citizens’ right to privacy.