[gnso-rds-pdp-wg] ICANN Legal Opinion on GDPR - Part 1

[Sam Lanfranco]

In addition to agreeing with Chuck's assessment here I want to go a bit 
further from a pan-global (larger than ICANN) perspective. The Internet 
*IS* global and in its short life we have ample evidence that it is not 
solely the domain of saints doing good things. The need for personal 
(and other) data protection at many levels is beyond obvious.

The EU's GDPR is a milestone along the path of data protection for 
individuals. DP regulations, by country and region will continue to 
evolve, and despite different regional sensitivities, will emulate each 
others best practices.  It is no more Euro-centric to use the GDPRs and 
other "best practice" data protection regimes to help reshape WHOIS and 
develop an RDS, than to complain that 110Volts and  220 Volts are too 
Euro/North American centric, and call for 55Volt or 165Volt systems. 
That is where we are on this global Internet road today.

This will not be the last time adjustments have to be made in both DP 
regulations and practice, and in the WHOIS/RDS policies adopted by 
ICANN. The major risk here is to ICANN and its remit. Individuals (civil 
society) and governments will continue to press for and evolve DP regimes.

If ICANN wants to stay relevant in that process it has no choice but to 
do two things. First, within itself it takes the periodic revision of 
its own data management policies in light of emerging DP regimes and 
technologies (e.g. blockchain). Second, bigger and beyond this wg, it 
has to figure out how ICANN, as ICANN, operates as a stakeholder within 
the wider policy discussions with regard to Internet governance, having 
a voice in wider Internet governance policies that impact on ICANN.

My prediction, based on a reading of history beyond ICANN, is if ICANN 
does not rise to the occasion on both of these fronts, it will have a 
shortened life, may survive as a technology provider, and become a 
footnote in the history of the evolution of global Internet governance.

Sam Lanfranco


want to call attention to the following paragraph:

"The memo highlights the complexity of these issues in the domain name
space, and concludes that the current open, publicly available WHOIS
services cannot remain unchanged. The WHOIS system has to become adaptable
to address the GDPR from the European perspective, as well as other changing
regulations around the world."

After input from Data Protection experts, the Wilson Sonsini memo and now
this memo, do any in the WG disagree with this statement?

Chuck



On 10/19/2017 8:51 AM, Chuck wrote:
> I want to call attention to the following paragraph:
>
> "The memo highlights the complexity of these issues in the domain name
> space, and concludes that the current open, publicly available WHOIS
> services cannot remain unchanged. The WHOIS system has to become adaptable
> to address the GDPR from the European perspective, as well as other changing
> regulations around the world."
>
> After input from Data Protection experts, the Wilson Sonsini memo and now
> this memo, do any in the WG disagree with this statement?
>
> Chuck
>

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