The Italian registry has made some changes to their production system and in my opinion, it is not an improvement.
Till today you could opt out for publishing data in the WHOIS for the following entities:
- Natural persons Italian and EU based
- Freelance workers/professionals (Italian based)
- Italian Companies/one-man companies (Italian based)
- Public organizations (Italian based)
- Non-profit organizations(Italian based)
- Foreign companies/organizations matching 2-6 (EU based)
- Other subjects (Italian based)
Since today the opt-out is available for natural persons only.
All other entities must agree to the fact that its data will be published in the WHOIS. If the registrant is not a natural person and does not agree, the domain name will not be registered.
While legally speaking the above is correct as only natural persons are covered by the GDPR and legal entities are not.
However, a majority of the lawyers in the EU think there is an exception to the rule, as one-man-owned entities and freelancers are viewed as a natural person as it is not possible to separate personal and corporate data. But unless a DPA or a court confirms this exception, the situation is as it is.
Due to the above, we advise our resellers to inform their customers of the changes by the Italian Registry and warn of the consequences.
How the Registry handles personal data in the WHOIS can be read here.