New Zealand’s ccTLD manager, InternetNZ, introduced an Individual Registrant Privacy Option (IRPO) for individual .nz registrants in November 2017 and in March 2018 it became mandatory for registrars to make it available. In less than a year there has been over 22,000 domain names have had their contact information, or Whois, hidden.
The IRPO is only available to identifiable individuals who don’t use their domain name to any significant extent in trade and must be requested. The Domain Name Commissioner, which oversees policies, will be monitoring the IRPO for misuse.
The DNC has also noticed that as a result of the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation, there has been an increase in the use of third-party privacy options and proxy services. However these are not permissible under .nz policy.
All .nz registrants, including individuals, are required to provide contact details such as address and phone number and it remains public for all companies and organisations when a Whois search is conducted. For individuals, their contact details will be made available to entities that enter into Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with the DNC and where there are ongoing and legitimate needs for access to Withheld Information.
For individual .nz registrants wanting to take advantage of the IRPO, they should contact Brandshelter to have it implemented.
