Whois Task Force

The Whois Task Force is responsible in improving the effectiveness of the Whois service and to maintain the stability and security of the DNS without compromising the privacy and personal information of individuals who are registered as name holders of the administrative or technical contact for a particular domain name.^[1]

Background

The creation of the Whois Task Force was formed following the conclusion of the work of the Whois Committee that was organized by the ICANN Staff to provide advice regarding the implementation of WHOis Policy for the .com, .net and .org top level domain names TLDs.The Whois Task Force was officially approved by the Domain Names Supporting Organization Names Council during its meeting on February 8, 2001. It was delegated to perform consultation with the internet community if there is a need to review the ICANN Whois Policy and determine strategies to carry out the process.^[2]

Whois

Whois is a transaction-oriented query protocol which provides information about networks, domains and hosts. It contains the full name and contact details of the the person or authorized representative of the registered domain holder. Internet users can send their queries about a domain name through the Whois server.^[3] Registrars are required to maintain a Whois database of all the registered domain names and the contact information of the owners that are hosted in their servers.

Responsibilities of Whois Task Force

The Whois Task Force primary responsibilities include:^[4]

Provide a clear definition of Whois and the purpose of the Registered Domain Name Holder's administrative, technical and billing contacts based on ICANN's mission and core values.
Determine which data should be publicly available and how this data should be accessed.
Develop ways on how to maintain the accuracy of the Whois database.
Identify mechanisms on how to resolve disputes between domain name holders, registrars and registries in accordance with all governmental laws and regulations as well as with ICANN terms of agreements.