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Register for ICANN62

As ICANN61 wraps up, it's time to start looking ahead to the ICANN62 Policy Forum, to be held in Panama City from 25–28 June 2018. This four-day meeting will be focused on policy development work, outreach, and daily opportunities to network with the community.

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Blog Posts

Data Protection/Privacy Issues Update: Discussion with Article 29 Working Party

Chair’s Blog: Our Sympathies

Do You Have a Domain Name? Here’s What You Need to Know

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News and Announcements

ICANN Requests DPA Guidance for GDPR Compliance

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ICANN requested European data protection authorities (DPAs) provide guidance on the organization's Proposed Interim Compliance Model as it relates to the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Read the announcement which details our request along with how it affects global WHOIS and domain name registries and registrars.

Budget Discussions at ICANN61

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In his latest blog, ICANN President and CEO, Göran Marby, discusses his thoughts about the FY19 draft Budget and Operating discussions that took place during ICANN61. Marby touches on the main points brought up during these conversations and his appreciation for the community's ideas. Click the link above to read the blog.

Do You Have a Domain Name? Here’s What You Need to Know

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For many registrants, domain names (and the services connected to them, like websites and emails) are essential to their professional and personal lives. Whether used for online commerce, or simply to communicate with family and friends, domain names are valuable assets and should be managed with care. Click the link above to learn more.

ICANN63 Fellowship Application Round Now Open

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ICANN is seeking a broad and diverse group of knowledgeable constituents to apply for the ICANN63 Fellowship Program. The meeting runs from 20-26 October 2018 in Barcelona, Spain. The application round is open through 27 April 2018. Click on the link above to learn more.

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Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."