[bc-gnso] Candidate statement for Steve DelBianco -- BC Vice Chair for Policy Coordination

[Steve DelBianco]

BC members:

I'm seeking re-election as your vice chair for policy coordination in 2019, so here’s my candidate statement for BC members.

Looking back on my 2018 candidate statement, I promised to “expand the depth and breadth of policy participation by BC members … to build our bench of policy drafters.”     Thanks to a growing and active BC membership, we achieved those goals in 2018:


  *   The BC has submitted 46 comments/statements<https://www.bizconst.org/positions-statements> in 2018 so far, up from 38 in all of 2017.
  *   32 different BC members have contributed to comment drafting and editing, up from 31 in 2017.
  *   Moreover, 10 of the 32 BC contributors were participating for their first time.

If members re-elect me to vice chair for policy coordination in 2019, I would continue expanding participation by BC members while driving for more participation by BC members on GNSO and cross-community working groups.  Our public comments are helpful to declare business interests, but we also need to be part of the working groups and review teams that develop the recommendations that are posted for public comment.

A key policy challenge for 2019 is to preserve business access to registrant information (Whois) in order to address consumer confusion and fraud.   Whois access is going to be affected by Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the BC is already leading other stakeholders in considering creative ways to comply with GDPR.   If you’re wondering why the BC focuses so much on Whois, my column in our Barcelona BC Newsletter<https://www.bizconst.org/assets/docs/newsletters/2018_BC-NEWSLETTER-ICANN63-8p-web.pdf> explains:

…start with the BC’s mission to ensure that ICANN “promotes user confidence in online communications and business interactions”.  Businesses use Whois data to protect their customers from confusion and fraud that is facilitated by deceptive domain names, and to track malware and DNS attacks targeting business websites.

Acknowledging that all of ICANN’s contracts and commitments are enforced subject to applicable laws, there is much room for interpretation and discretion of GDPR law when applying it to Whois.

Also in 2019, the BC will need to advocate for general business interests in multiple reviews and working groups planning for subsequent expansions of the gTLD space.  Again, we need more BC members to participate in these working groups.

My current ICANN Statement of Interest is posted here<https://community.icann.org/download/attachments/43980848/DelBianco%20-%20SOI.pdf?version=1&modificationDate=1384632525000&api=v2> and below:

For 18 years I have led NetChoice, a trade association of e-commerce companies and online services, including Airbnb, Alibaba, AoL, eBay, Expedia, Facebook, Google, HomeAway, Lyft, PayPal, Overstock, VeriSign, and Yahoo.  (see http://www.netchoice.org<http://www.netchoice.org/>  )

I set the policy agenda for NetChoice and frequently testify at international venues, before the US Congress, and in state legislatures, on issues relating to Internet governance, e-commerce taxation, privacy, and consumer protection.   I also represent NetChoice at ICANN meetings and at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

I have no financial ownership or management role in any registries, registrars or other firms that are, or aspire to be, contract parties with ICANN.  One NetChoice member is a large registry operator, and some other members are operating new gTLDs.

The basis of my interest in ICANN is to maintain the integrity and availability of e-commerce and internet services.  This stems from the NetChoice mission statement:  To make the Internet safe for free enterprise and free expression.

--
Steve DelBianco
President
NetChoice
http://www.NetChoice.org<http://www.netchoice.org/>
+1.703.615-6206

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