I think GDPR has made domain investing more challenging for the past few years. Despite the fact that GDPR regulations cover Europeans and European companies, some registrars have opted to block public WHOIS data across the board, while allowing registrants to opt out if they wish. Domain registrants in the US have been largely spared by this, but that is going to change in a couple of months.

As I shared on Friday evening, GoDaddy is planning to remove public Whois records in June. I am disappointed with this because Whois records offer valuable information about domain name registrants which can be used to inquire about domain name purchases, perform due diligence on a prospective purchase, and to do general research about domain registrants.

Yesterday morning, I was forwarded an ominous sounding email sent by GoDaddy to an industry colleague. The subject of the email was somewhat innocuous, “On May 18, 2020 we are retiring Privacy for Backorders.” The opening paragraph with details about the changes were concerning to me:

“We’re working on rolling out changes to better ensure your personal data is hidden in the public WHOIS database, for free. As part of that effort, we’re ending support for our Private Domain Backorder add-on product. We expect these changes to be live in early June.”

This sounded like GoDaddy was planning to make significant changes to how the company displays Whois records for domain names registered there, and that would have major implications for domain investors and GoDaddy customers.

I reached out to a representative from GoDaddy to ask about the email in order to get some clarity on what changes are being made to public Whois records. Paul Bindel, VP of Operations at GoDaddy Registrar, shared the following statement with me:

GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani made a live appearance this morning on Yahoo Finance to discuss how small businesses are impacted by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and what that means for GoDaddy’s operations. Aman did not mention domain names in this morning’s discussion, but he did discuss how “micro businesses” with 500 or fewer employees are coping with the pandemic and associated economic fall-out.

In its Investor Day presentation on April 2nd, GoDaddy commented about the impact and potential impact COVID-19 will have on the secondary aftermarket where many domain investors sell their domain names (along with GoDaddy’s NameFind portfolio company). The company cautioned that “higher price point offerings / more likely to see greater demand impact in a recession.”