WHOIS information alternative

[Timbot-42]

Our use case involves identifying the registered ASN organizations associated with an IP address visiting a website, and processing and reporting these back to the website owner. We currently use a third party tracker to collect the IP addresses and then a WHOIS service to find the registered owners. My understanding so far is that because I am using a third party tracker the traffic would go through Googles proxy, and I would instead get a Google IP address with almost equivalent geolocation data.

However, I assume all the WHOIS data will now all come out as Google as the owner instead of the actual owner. Seeing as WHOIS data is not the users personal information what assurances can Google provide that this data will still be accessible, and through what mechanism will we be able to obtain it?

[DavidSchinazi]

Hi, the client IP will no longer be available in such cases. Because of this, the related WHOIS information (such as ASN) will not be available either. However, the Google IPs will be registered in IP geolocation databases. This means that your third party will still be able to access the rough geolocation of the user. More details here.

[Timbot-42]

Thanks for your reply David. So are you basically saying this is a breaking change you have no intention of providing an alternative for even though it has nothing to do with user privacy?

[DavidSchinazi]

Our position is that the IP address is a stable identifier whose use can have privacy implications for users, including the use of metadata associated with it such as ASN. With IP Protection we're trying to strike the right balance between privacy and supporting a helpful user experience on the web, for example with our approach to IP geolocation. If this metadata isn't sufficient for your use-case, we are open to discussing that more.