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ICANN Documentary Information Disclosure Policy

(As amended 21 January 2023)

About the DIDP

ICANN's Documentary Information Disclosure Policy (DIDP) is intended to ensure that information contained in documents concerning ICANN, and within ICANN's possession, custody, or control, is made available to the public unless there is a compelling reason for confidentiality. A principal element of ICANN's approach to transparency and information disclosure is the identification of a comprehensive set of materials that ICANN makes available on its websites as a matter of course.

Specifically, ICANN has:

  • Identified many of the categories of documents that are already made public as a matter of due course

  • Developed a time frame for responding to requests for information not already publicly available

  • Identified specific conditions for nondisclosure of information

  • Described the mechanism under which requestors may seek review of ICANN's DIDP Response

Publicly Available Documents

ICANN posts on websites it operates, mainly on www.icann.org, numerous categories of documents in due course. A list of those categories including, but is not limited to, the following:

Definitions

The term "ICANN" means ICANN staff (full-time or part-time), Board members, advisors, consultants, contractors, agents, and others acting on behalf of ICANN.

Submitting a DIDP Request

Any member of the public may submit a DIDP request to ICANN. To submit a DIDP request, please send an email to didp@icann.org describing the documentary information you are seeking. Please provide as much detail as possible to identify the party submitting the request and the documents requested. If you have a question or need assistance with submitting a DIDP request, please contact the DIDP team at didp@icann.org.

Responding to DIDP Requests

All DIDP requests will be responded to in accordance with the DIDP Response Process.

ICANN will provide a written response to all DIDP requests, as soon as practicable, within 30 calendar days of receipt of the request, unless it is not feasible to do so. If that time frame cannot be met, ICANN will inform the requestor in writing as to when a response will be provided, which shall not be longer than an additional 30 calendar days, and explain the reasons necessary for the extension of time to respond.

DIDP Defined Conditions for Nondisclosure

ICANN has identified the following set of conditions for the nondisclosure of information:

  • Information provided by or to a government or international organization, or any form of recitation of such information, in the expectation that the information will be kept confidential and/or would or likely would materially prejudice ICANN's relationship with that party.

  • Internal information that, if disclosed, would or would be likely to compromise the integrity of ICANN's deliberative and decision-making process by inhibiting the candid exchange of ideas and communications, including internal documents, memoranda, and other similar communications to or from ICANN.

  • Information exchanged, prepared for, or derived from the deliberative and decision-making process between ICANN, its constituents, and/or other entities with which ICANN cooperates that, if disclosed, would or would be likely to compromise the integrity of the deliberative and decision-making process between and among ICANN, its constituents, and/or other entities with which ICANN cooperates by inhibiting the candid exchange of ideas and communications.

  • Personnel, medical, contractual, remuneration, and similar records relating to an individual's personal information, when the disclosure of such information would or likely would constitute an invasion of personal privacy, as well as proceedings of internal appeal mechanisms and investigations.

  • Information provided to ICANN by a party that, if disclosed, would or would be likely to materially prejudice the commercial interests, financial interests, and/or competitive position of such party or was provided to ICANN pursuant to a nondisclosure agreement, nondisclosure provision within an agreement, or separate designation of confidentiality.

  • Information that, if disclosed, would or would be likely to endanger the life, health, or safety of any individual or materially prejudice the administration of justice.

  • Information subject to the attorney–client, attorney work product privilege, or any other applicable privilege, or disclosure of which might prejudice any internal, governmental, or legal investigation.

  • Drafts of all correspondence, reports, documents, agreements, contracts, emails, or any other forms of communication that, if disclosed, could be harmful to an ongoing deliberative or decision-making process, or are subject to another Condition for Non-Disclosure.

  • Information that, if disclosed, could be harmful to the security and stability of the Internet, including the operation of the ICANN Managed Root Server or the Root Server System for which ICANN facilitates the coordination, or any changes, modifications, or additions to the root zone.

  • Materials, including but not limited to, trade secrets, commercial and financial information, confidential business information, and internal policies and procedures, the disclosure of which could materially harm ICANN's financial or business interests or the commercial interests of its stakeholders who have those interests. Where the disclosure of documentary information depends upon prior approval from a third party, ICANN will contact the third party to determine whether they would consent to the disclosure in accordance with the DIDP Response Process.

Information requests: (i) which are not reasonable; (ii) which are excessive or overly burdensome; (iii) complying with which is not feasible; or (iv) are made with an abusive or vexatious purpose or by a vexatious or querulous individual.

Information that falls within any of the conditions set forth above may still be made public if ICANN determines, under the particular circumstances, that the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the harm that may be caused by such disclosure. ICANN shall not be required to create or compile summaries of any documented information and shall not be required to respond to requests seeking information that is already publicly available. ICANN may choose to, however, create new documentary information to make public in response to a request under this DIDP as ICANN deems feasible and necessary if there is little to no information available on the ICANN website.

Review of DIDP Responses

To the extent a requestor chooses to seek review of a DIDP response, a requestor may invoke any of the accountability mechanisms provided for under the Bylaws to the extent applicable, such as the Reconsideration Request process in accordance with Bylaws, Article 4, Section 4.2, the Independent Review Process in accordance with Bylaws, Article 4, Section 4.3, or the Ombudsman if a requestor believes that the response was unfair in accordance with Bylaws, Article 5.

DIDP Requests and Responses

Requests submitted under the DIDP and ICANN responses are available on the DIDP Requests and Responses webpage. NOTE: With the exception of personal email addresses, phone numbers and mailing addresses, DIDP Requests are otherwise published in full on ICANN's website, unless there are exceptional circumstances requiring further redaction, in accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy.

Guidelines for the Publication of Board Briefing Materials

The publication of Board Briefing Materials on the Board Meetings webpage is guided by the application of the DIDP. The Guidelines for the Posting of Board Briefing Materials are available at https://www.icann.org/resources/board-material/briefing-materials-guidelines-2019-12-20-en.

Periodic Review

ICANN will review the DIDP Policy and the DIDP Response Process every five years.


To submit a request, send an email to didp@icann.org.

Archive

The following has been superseded by the ICANN Documentary Information Disclosure Policy effective 21 January 2023:

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."