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2018-06-28 GDPR and WHOIS
GAC Advice
2018-06-28 GDPR and WHOIS
ICANN62 Panama Communique
Consensus met
2018-06-28 GDPR and WHOIS
The GAC considers that a unified access model is central to providing access to non-public WHOIS data for users with a legitimate purpose and this should continue to be addressed as a matter of urgency. Therefore,
a. the GAC advises the ICANN Board to:
- Take all steps necessary to ensure the development and implementation of a unified access model that addresses accreditation, authentication, access and accountability, and applies to all contracted parties, as quickly as possible; and
- Publish a status report, four weeks prior to ICANN 63.
IV. Follow up on previous Advice
The following items reflect matters related to previous consensus advice provided to the Board.
We emphasize the GAC consensus advice from ICANN62 that urged ICANN to take all steps necessary to ensure the development and implementation of a unified access model that addresses accreditation, authentication, access and accountability, and applies to all contracted parties. We welcome ICANN’s efforts to facilitate the necessary community discussion through the Unified Access Model papers and emphasize the need to drive these discussions towards concrete and timely results.
Rationale
The GAC notes that access to WHOIS information is critical for the furtherance of legitimate purposes associated with protecting the public interest including law enforcement; cybersecurity; consumer protection and the protection of intellectual property. To this effect, the development of stable, predictable, and workable access mechanisms for non-public WHOIS information is necessary. The GAC finds the existing requirements in the Temporary Specification for contracted parties to provide reasonable access to non-public information as insufficient to protect the public interest.
In order to protect the public interest, as well as the secure, stable, and resilient operation of the DNS, the development and implementation of a unified access model is of utmost importance. The GAC considers that direct involvement and action is required by ICANN Org to facilitate and support this.