Dear All, This is an interesting thread. As one collects more data, the risk of breaches and cyber-attacks increases. This is the governing maxim on every exercise in "Data Collection". Are we erring in this maxim with a good intention of provisioning for verification? Garnering high-quality data is essential for accurate analysis. However, with the influx of data from various sources, ensuring its accuracy and consistency can be daunting. One must establish stringent data validation processes to avoid the pitfalls of erroneous data, which can lead to poor decision-making. Cleaning and maintaining data quality is a continuous process that requires significant resources and attention. Integrating disparate data sources can be challenging and requires strong middle ware to tide over differing formats. Navigating the ethical boundaries of data collection is increasingly complex specifically when it comes to marking the evidences and chalking out [or controlling] its propagation in the Internet. One needs an "ICANN Space" to address all these concerns simultaneously. There have been methods of limited use that can now be labeled "Served a Limited Purpose" and proving difficult to integrate, interoperate or scale and hence too expensive to maintain. I go back to the question at the beginning of this post and wait for comments. Gopal T V 0 9840121302 https://vidwan.inflibnet.ac.in/profile/57545 https://www.facebook.com/gopal.tadepalli ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dr. T V Gopal Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering & Director, Centre for Applied Research in Indic Technologies [CARIT] College of Engineering, Guindy Campus Anna University Chennai - 600 025, INDIA Ph : (Off) 22351723 Extn. 3340 (Res) 24454753 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ________________________________ From: John McCormac via CPWG <cpwg@icann.org> Sent: 18 February 2025 03:10 To: CPWG <cpwg@icann.org> Subject: [CPWG] Re: [ALAC] Re: Statement on Registration Data Accuracy 17/02/2025 13:15, Theo Geurts via CPWG wrote:
Steinar,
While you raise a valid point, it is part of a more extensive economic discussion.
To have better or more accurate data, it needs to be combined with verification systems, or else it does not make sense. Mickey Mouse with a valid address is still not accurate data.
These verification systems are costly. To verify Dutch registrants, would cost around 400.000 Euros each year for the registrar I work for. Belgium registrants will set us back around 200.000 Euros. So with only two countries, it is 600.000 Euros a year and I still need to cover 191 other countries.
There seems to be a massive disconnect between what governments/European Commission want and reality. Governments typically take a solution that may work for their country and try to apply it globally and this seems to be what is happening here. The common infrastructuture (digital signature services) and common legislation are not present. At a European Commission show and tell for NIS-2, I asked a simple question of the EC's people: have you quantified the number of DNSes that would be affected by your legislation? They hadn't. An amendment by a Dutch MEP to NIS-2 to make it more rational was rejected. NIS-2 is now part of national legislation in most EU countries. Because ICANN and the various constituencies talked about things for years, governments simply went ahead and created legislation (as the European Commission did with GDPR) while everyone was busy talking. The Registration Data Accuracy issue and NIS-2 is another example of events overtaking discussions.
With the current profit margins, the entire thing is not economically feasible. Sure prices can go up, but at some point, people cannot afford a domain name and then the issue of the digital divide enters the discussion.
The Digital Divide is a major problem for ICANN especially with the next round of new gTLDs. I've been working on mapping the web hosting providers and gTLD markets. I already have the gTLD registrars and resellers and their in-country and external website hosting counts as part of the monthly Registrars and Resellers report. The problem with the Digital Divide is that, despite all the best intentions of ICANN and the people working on the new gTLDs, the Digital Divide isn't going away. Some developing countries have minimal in-country hosting due to the lack of Internet infrastructure and the costs of domain name registration. The recent price hikes in .COM/NET have not helped. Some of the cheaper 2012 round new gTLDs have started to replace the smaller legacy gTLDs (.NET/ORG/BIZ/INFO) in some countries often because they are cheaper. A digital signatures approach is very much a solution that does not yet scale globally. The unfettered Domain Tasting of the mid-2000s accelerated the uptake of the ccTLDs at the expense of the gTLDs. In many countries, the monthly new registration volume of the local ccTLD is multiples of that of the gTLDs. People may think of gTLDs as being single markets like ccTLDs. They are not. They are composite markets of a small global market and many country level markets. Those countries often have different levels of development in terms of infrastructure and things like digital identities. Businesses may have easily verified registration data such as business numbers. Ordinary registrants may not. If they were to use government issued tax or public services numbers, that creates a layer complexity in handling Personally Identifiable Information (PII). An unintended consequence of digital signatures and more onerous registrant requirements is that they essentially turn a gTLD into a managed TLD. Managed TLDs have lower registration volume than TLDs without entitlement requirements where a registrant has to prove some kind of entitlement (in this case that all their registration data is accurate, verified (by who?) and digitally signed) to register a domain name. One effect of the Digital Divide is that resellers from developing countries host the websites and services of their clients outside their country's infrastructure. Some countries can have more than 50% of their registrations hosted outside the country's infrastructure. The costs of becoming an ICANN accredited registrar are prohibitive for resellers in developing and even well developed countries. The registrar geography of ICANN's registrars shows the Digital Divide: ICANN Region - gTLDs AF 13 187,666 (Africa) AP 616 39,941,560 (Asia-Pacific) EUR 188 33,698,426 (Europe) LAC 11 969,182 (Latin America/Caribbean) NA 2,044 157,070,357 (North America) ICANN's registrar model was a great solution for the 1990s and more agile and cost-effective ccTLD rgistrar accreditation is becoming the more commercially viable option in many countries. But that is a different discussion. Just what will the effect of the new RDA rules and digital signatures be on those resellers using ICANN registrars outside their own country? Who ensures RDA? Will it be the reseller or the registrar? Some large gTLD registrars have thousands of resellers in multiple countries. The damage will be measured in lost gTLD registrations. Regards...jmcc -- ********************************************************** John McCormac * e-mail: jmcc@hosterstats.com MC2 * web: http://www.hosterstats.com/ 22 Viewmount * Domain Registrations Statistics Waterford * Domnomics - the business of domain names Ireland * https://amzn.to/2OPtEIO IE * Skype: hosterstats.com ********************************************************** -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com<http://www.avast.com> _______________________________________________ CPWG mailing list -- cpwg@icann.org To unsubscribe send an email to cpwg-leave@icann.org _______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.