GAC Presses ICANN on GDPR Compliance, DNS Abuse

General data protection regulation compliance and domain name system abuse remain top priorities for ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee, it said after last week's virtual meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (see 2006220002). It asked ICANN to prod the Generic Names Supporting Organization about progress on a plan to address unresolved issues in setting up a standardized system for requesting access to nonpublic Whois registration data. Governments want access to Whois data maintained "to the fullest extent possible," which means ICANN should make a clear distinction between legal and natural persons, and allow public access to registration data of the former, which isn't subject to the GDPR, they said. GAC backs ensuring data accuracy, another requirement under the ICANN temporary specification for complying with the GDPR. On DNS abuse, GAC members urged ICANN to prioritize capacity-building and training but said new efforts to tackle the problem "should not replace, but rather complement, existing initiatives" to boost accuracy of registration data and to adopt policies on privacy and proxy services. Governments are focused on policy relating to the next round of new generic top-level domain names, the statement said.