At the recent ICANN84 Annual General Meeting, the ICANN Board adopted a resolution asking ICANN to continue operating the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) for up to two years past the project's initial pilot period, which recently concluded. We are pleased to share that the RDRS remains operational for interested registrars and requestors, and will continue to be maintained as the community continues its policy work. Our thanks to the community for their collaboration and commitment throughout the RDRS pilot. The progress that has been made on RDRS would not have been possible without the active engagement of registrars, requestors, and community members globally.
For the past two years, more than 13,000 unique requestor accounts have been established in the RDRS. Requestors include law enforcement, intellectual property professionals, cybersecurity researchers, and others who have used the RDRS to securely submit approximately 3,600 requests for generic top-level domain (gTLD) nonpublic registration data disclosure. The service was launched in November 2023 as a voluntary pilot to help the ICANN Board and community better understand request volumes, disclosure trends, and operational needs related to the System for Standardized Access/Disclosure (SSAD) consensus policy recommendations. This supports the SSAD recommendations' goal of creating a predictable and scalable model for access to gTLD nonpublic registration data to align with global data-privacy laws.
The ICANN Board is now seeking community input on the RDRS Policy Alignment Analysis. Stakeholders – including registrars, requestors, civil society, governments, and technical experts – are invited to provide input on a proposed roadmap to align RDRS-related policy areas with the Board and community's requested enhancements. The feedback will help inform discussions between the ICANN Board and the Generic Names Supporting Organization Council as they assess how to proceed with the consensus policy recommendations for an SSAD. The analysis also explores how those SSAD policy recommendations may align with the work of the Privacy and Proxy Services Accreditation Issues Implementation Review Team (IRT) and the Registration Data Policy IRT's discussion regarding an enforceable timeline for urgent requests.
During the extension period, ICANN org will begin to address some of the requested system improvements that do not require policy development to ensure we continue to improve the user experience for both registrars and requestors. This includes improvements to the user interface, as well as ongoing work to develop an authentication protocol for law enforcement users.
Please visit icann.org to learn more about RDRS and provide your input on the RDRS Policy Alignment Analysis Public Comment proceeding before it closes at 23:59 on 9 December 2025.
