What is the WHOIS Accuracy Program?

The WHOIS Accuracy Program is a requirement of ICANN's 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement and is a mandatory requirements of all registrars as of 1 January 2014.

Under the WHOIS Accuracy program, registrars are required to validate and verify registrant and account holder data.  Deletion or suspension of registrations are explicitly required in the case of the following:

• Willful provision of inaccurate / unreliable data
• Willful failure to update data promptly (within 7 days of a change)
• Failure to respond to registrar data accuracy inquiry within 15 days

The full WHOIS Accuracy Program can be viewed in detail here.

Who does this apply to?

The program applies to all domains registrations for gTLDs governed by ICANN, which include, but are not limited to, .com, .net, .info, .biz and .org.  A complete list of gTLD governed by ICANN is maintained by IANA (all domains EXCEPT those listed as "country-code" are governed by ICANN).

The WHOIS Accuracy Policy will affect those who create contacts to register new domain names or those who update an existing contact that are associated with a currently registered domain name.  All existing contacts with currently registered domains do not fall under the policy until they are updated.

How is the Program Enforced?

Upon creating or updating a contact, an email will be sent to the email associated with that contact.  In the email there is a verification link.  Once the link is clicked, the verification process is complete.  That is it!

If the verification link is not clicked in 7 days, a second email will be sent, reminding the user to verify the email address,  After 15 days, in accordance with ICANN's WHOIS Accuracy Program, any domain name using that contact will be suspended.  An email will be sent notifying of the suspension. 

If you are getting a warning message about possible domain suspension the contact you are looking for iis listed on your domain level contacts.
When you log in to your account and go to the domain manager you will see a warning message indicating you have items requiring attention.
You will want to click on the boxes to open the edit screen to verify the email address is correct or update if necessary.
You will receive a verification email when you add a new email address. If you do not receive that email please email service@internic.ca directly from that email address with the subject line contact verification and indicate the domain name the contact is being used on and we will be happy to manually verify the contact on our side.