The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN, has published procedures under which domain registrars in countries with consumer friendly privacy legislation can apply for waivers to be exempt from compliance with the Data Retention Specification, DRS. The standard DRS process for registering new domains requires retaining communications and payment data related to registration of new domains. Some data is to be kept for up to two years after a contract ends. This process was developed under the influence of US and British crime prosecutors.
Many European registrars and users opposed the retention of their data and successfully lobbied for the possibility to be exempt from compliance. Registrars that qualify for a waiver will have to provide a judicial opinion showing that the retention of data is contrary to their national legislation. Once a registrar has received a waiver, other registrars in the same country can simply refer to that case to receive their wavers.
For more information, visit http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/updates/retention.
