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Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Work Summary

The following summarizes the work of the ICANN org, Board, and community conducted to date on the Registration Data Request Service.

This work is ongoing, and this page will be updated as progress continues.

  • On 21 April 2026, the SSAD Fact Sheet for Developing a Long-Term Solution for Requesting gTLD Nonpublic Registration Data was published. The fact sheet summarizes next steps for modifying the existing EPDP Phase 2 SSAD Policy Recommendations to incorporate the enhancements identified by the Board and community as necessary for RDRS or a successor system.
  • On 18 March 2026, the ICANN Board Statement was published in response to the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council's 2 March 2026 letter requesting the Board not adopt the 18 SSAD Policy Recommendations in order to trigger the Supplemental Recommendation process, as defined in Annex A, Section 9 of the ICANN Bylaws.
  • On 12 March 2026, the ICANN Board passed a resolution not to adopt the 18 System for Standardized Access/Disclosure (SSAD) Recommendations in the EPDP Phase 2 Final Report, as recommended by the RDRS Standing Committee and agreed in discussions with the GNSO Council. The Board believes this decision is in the best interest of ICANN and the community and will also serve the global public interest by allowing policy development work to continue, including work on the necessary enhancements identified by the Board and community through lessons learned from the Registration Data Request Service pilot.
  • On 27 February 2026, the RDRS Two-Year Pilot Summary Report was published. The report summarizes RDRS program operations from 28 November 2023 to 30 November 2025, and includes information on user feedback, engagement efforts, system usage metrics and surveys as requested by the GNSO Council.
  • On 20 January 2026, the RDRS Policy Alignment Analysis Public Comment was published. ICANN org received 13 submissions supporting the goals and direction for the RDRS Policy Alignment Analysis with the most relevant themes focusing on privacy compliance, law enforcement access, request response timing, and urgent requests.
  • On 19 December 2025 the final RDRS Usage Metrics Report for the RDRS pilot was published. Metrics reports will continue to be published on a quarterly basis during the two-year maintenance period.
  • On 30 November 2025, the two-year RDRS pilot concluded.
  • 30 October 2025, the ICANN Board adopted a resolution directing ICANN to continue RDRS for up to two years while the community continues policy work on a long-term solution for requesting gTLD nonpublic registration data disclosure. Concurrently, ICANN published the RDRS Policy Alignment Analysis for Public Comment. The analysis outlines options for aligning policy recommendations for an enhanced system and explores whether existing policy work on privacy and proxy services, urgent requests, and other relevant procedures can be aligned with future work on RDRS.
  • On 16 October 2025, ICANN org published the RDRS pilot's final Requestor and Registrar Survey Report.
  • On 14 October 2025, during ICANN84 Prep Week, ICANN org provided key insights from the two-year pilot, and the RDRS Standing Committee presented findings and lessons learned from the pilot, which ends in November 2025.
  • On 19 August 2025, RDRS Standing Committee Findings Report was published for Public Comment and included recommendations and lessons learned from the RDRS pilot that may inform future discussions between the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council and the ICANN Board on the pending System for Standardized Access Disclosure (SSAD) consensus policy recommendations.
  • On 24 February 2025, the RDRS Annual Report was published which provided an operational assessment and evaluation of the pilot's first year. ICANN org also completed three additional enhancements requested by the RDRS Standing Committee.
  • On 31 October 2024, during ICANN81 Prep Week, ICANN org provided a RDRS one-year operational review for the RDRS pilot. ICANN org also conducted several RDRS user-experience interviews with registrars and requestors during ICANN81 and published a report for community review.
  • As of August 2024, and at the request of the RDRS Standing Committee, ICANN org completed six RDRS system enhancements and seven metrics report enhancements.
  • On 29 May 2024, during ICANN80 Prep Week, ICANN org provided an RDRS six-month operational review.
  • On 17 January 2024, the first RDRS Usage Metrics Report was published.
  • On 28 November 2023, ICANN org launched the RDRS as a two-year pilot program to gather usage and demand data intended to inform the ICANN Board's decision on next steps and ongoing consultation with the GNSO Council on the SSAD.
  • During ICANN76 in March 2023, in an effort to more accurately describe the use of the system, the WHOIS Disclosure System was renamed the Registration Data Request Service.
  • During a Special Meeting on 27 February 2023, the ICANN Board of Directors passed a resolution directing ICANN org to develop and launch a new ticketing system to handle requests for access to generic top-level domain (gTLD) nonpublic registration data.
  • On 17 November 2022, the GNSO Council informed the Board and ICANN org that the Council unanimously accepted the Addendum to the Preliminary Report (Addendum) prepared by the GNSO Small Team. The Addendum recommended to the GNSO Council that the ICANN Board and ICANN org should proceed with their decision-making process on the implementation of the system as quickly as possible. The Council also noted its expectation that the name of the system be modified before launch.
  • On 13 September 2022, the WHOIS Disclosure System design paper was published and presented to the community at ICANN75. This was followed by two community webinars in October 2022.
  • On 9 June 2022, the ICANN Board agreed to the Council's request to pause the consideration of the SSAD-related recommendations and on 14 July 2022 accepted the GNSO Council's request to proceed with the WHOIS Disclosure System design paper.
  • On 6 April 2022, ICANN org offered to outline an approach called the "WHOIS Disclosure System," which would simplify the process of submitting and receiving requests for gTLD nonpublic registration data for both requestors and contracted parties, and be cost effective. ICANN org began working on a design for the proposed system in July 2022.
  • On 4 April 2022, the GNSO Small Team submitted a Preliminary Report to the GNSO Council recommending a proof-of-concept approach. This is "not necessarily a path to the end product… It is expected to be relatively easy and inexpensive to set up and implement. A proof of concept does not deal with edge cases and/or reproduce a user experience that is identical to what the SSAD is expected to do."
  • On 25 January 2022, ICANN org submitted the Operational Design Assessment (ODA), the final product of the Operational Design Phase (ODP), to the ICANN Board. The ODA is meant to help the Board determine the operational impact of the implementation of the recommendations, including whether they are in the best interests of the ICANN community or ICANN (ICANN Bylaws Annex A, Section 9 (a)). The GNSO Council formed a Small Team to analyze the ODA and to help inform the Council on its discussions with the Board.
  • On 24 January 2022, the ICANN Board shared its concerns regarding the proposed SSAD with the GNSO Council.
  • On 25 March 2021, the ICANN Board directed the ICANN President and CEO to conduct an SSAD ODP for recommendations 1 through 18 of the Expedited Policy Development Process Phase 2 Final Report, which had been approved by the GNSO Council.

Last page update: February 2026

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