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ICANN org Responds to the European Commission’s Public Consultation on Standard Contractual Clauses for Transferring Personal Data to Non-EU Countries

10 December 2020

BRUSSELS – 10 December 2020 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) responded today to the European Commission's (EC) public consultation on the EC's draft Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) for transferring personal data to non-European Union (EU) countries.

The EC updated the SCCs to incorporate changes needed in light of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and to address issues identified in the European Court of Justice's Schrems II decision. Schrems II invalidated the EU-US privacy shield, a commonly used mechanism for transferring personal data from the EU to the United States. It also raised questions about safeguards that must be implemented to transfer personal data across borders in compliance with the GDPR.

ICANN org's response to the public consultation, which closed today, highlights positive attributes in the draft SCCs. It requests clarifications and identifies broader challenges with cross-border data transfers post-Schrems II.

Both the draft SCCs and the European Data Protection Board's (EDPB) recent recommendations 01/2020, on measures that supplement transfer tools to ensure compliance with the EU level of protection for personal data, will impact the development of the System for Standardized Access/Disclosure recommended by ICANN's Expedited Policy Development Process Phase 2 Team.

The EDPB's recommendations 01/2020 are open for feedback until 21 December 2020. ICANN org will respond to this consultation as well.

The full response submitted by ICANN org is available here.

All contributions to the public comment will be available on the consultation's website.

About ICANN

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address – a name or a number – into your computer or other device. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world.