[EURO-Discuss] REMINDER: Meeting Invitation: EURALO Monthly Call on Tuesday, 16 May 2017 at 18:00 UTC - GDPR

Tue May 16 16:38:00 UTC 2017

Good afternoon:

>> Adobe Connect Room: https://participate.icann.org/euralo/ 18.00 UTC, 20.00 CEST, 19.00 BST.

With a view to thisevening's EURALO call, may I mention, at Olivier's request, the main lines of the WHOIS personal data protection issue and its relation to the recent EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). You will find the relevant text at:
https://gdpr-info.eu/
ICANN's failure to respect European data protection rules has been a long-standing issue, at least since the 1990's.
Most recently, the working group on Registrars and Registries' waivers to contractual obligations to publish WHOIS data refused to accept amendments and criticisms addressing the fact that ICANN's contracts oblige Registries and Registrars to breach European data protection laws. Their report is here. Surprisingly, ICANN staff participation in the working group led the rejection of EU law, whereas ICANN's Articles of Incorporation require respect to applicable local law. The excuse for rejection was that European data protection authorities did not have powers of enforcement.
It is now welcome, if ironic, that apparently just because the GDPR includes enforcement powers, ICANN now deems that this is 'the most important change in data privacy regulation in over 20 years'. Nooo … If ICANN had been respecting its international obligations, our Registries and Registrars would have been voluntarily and contractually respecting best practice privacy protection for the past decade or two. It is morally shocking that ICANN would only move on this under threat of enforcement. (It is as if one would only respect a speed limit when being tail-gated by a police car!)
EURALO can now ensure that ICANN turns the page definitively.
1.	A general hearing with European data protection commissioners was organised at ICANN58, Copenhagen. The transcript can be found here.	I have not yet seen the staff's report and action items arising from that session.

2.	ICANN 59 Johannesburg:	A cross community session on GDPR has been scheduled for Block 4, Day 2 (15.15-16.45, 90 minutes.) The current version of the Policy Forum leaves all the details of this session altogether blank. That needs to be corrected and completed quickly. The session is sponsored by ccNSO and gNSO. That is not appropriately balanced. This is primarily an issue for users' interests. ALAC should also be among the sponsoring SOAC.
3.	Meanwhile, the revised Whois waiver policy, adopted in April 2017, already appears to be obsolete:
Surely one cannot on the one hand sustain the proposed cumbersome, case-by-case, unfair, waiver procedure at the same time as anticipating that on the other hand all Registries and Registrars, in EU jurisdiction, shall within a year, comply with the GDPR.

4.	Finally, the Johannesburg policy forum document suggests that one outcome of that discussion could be that ICANN would undertake a 'legal review'. That sounds rather like another excuse for delay. The time for legal review is long past. After all, the main lines of the GDPR have been available for several years. 

It is now time for simple ICANN housekeeping to ensure that as soon as possible the contractual obligations of Registries and Registrars are compatible with applicable local law.
I gather that the Agenda for thisevening's call provides 10 minutes for this question. I suggest that the most urgent Action Item would be to develop a thorough agenda and presentation of the issue at ICANN59 Johannesburg with necessary followup thereafter.

I trust that this is helpful to provide background to our discussion thisevening and to make best use of the limited time available.

Regards

Christopher

On 16 May 2017, at 16:51, Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond <ocl at gih.com> wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> in tonight's call, we'll have an item on :
> WHOIS issue in context of the implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR ) and taking into account the Updated ICANN Procedure for Handling WHOIS Conflicts with Privacy Laws
> 
> I trust that this should be of particular interest to our region.
> Kindest regards,
> 
> Olivier
> 
> 
> On 16/05/2017 13:40, ICANN At-Large Staff wrote:
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>> Dear All,
>>  
>> The next EURALO Monthly Call is scheduled for Tuesday, 16 May 2017 at 18:00 UTC for 60 minutes. 
>> 
>> The agenda (to be updated) and call details are available at:  https://community.icann.org/x/TA7fAw
>>  
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>> 
>> ICANN Policy Staff in support of the At-Large Community
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> -- 
> Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, PhD
> http://www.gih.com/ocl.html
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