There are a variety of stakeholder groups that have vested interests in and concerns related to accessing or providing access to domain name registration data. Broadly speaking, these groups can be categorized as:

• Collectors: entities that collect the data (such as registrars and registries)
• Requestors: entities that want the data (such as individual researchers, law enforcement, and IP attorneys)
• Protectors: entities that want to protect the data (such as privacy advocates)
• Policy Authorities: entities that must define policies regarding the Internet (such as NGO and government policymakers)