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Share Your Feedback on the Registration Data Policy Implementation Plan

24 August 2022
By
Theresa Swinehart

Theresa Swinehart

SVP, Global Domains & Strategy

Theresa Swinehart is the Senior Vice President of Global Domains and Strategy. In this role, she works with the community, contracted parties, stakeholders, and policymakers to ensure broad and inclusive engagement, consensus-based policymaking through ICANN’s multistakeholder model, and effective, accountable policy implementation. Her responsibilities include policy implementation, review operation, and cross-functional strategic initiatives such as ICANN’s compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. An expert in global Internet governance, Theresa also serves as co-deputy to the President and CEO. Her extensive industry experience, including nearly 20 years as a key contributor to ICANN’s growth and development, gives her a valuable perspective on how ICANN organization can work efficiently and collaboratively to better serve the global Internet community.

Theresa rejoined ICANN after three years as Executive Director of Global Internet Policy at Verizon Communications, where she specialized in emerging issues as well as stakeholder and policy engagement. Prior to this, she served as ICANN’s Vice President of Global and Strategic Partnerships, leading a team responsible for partnership reform, global engagement and outreach, and the participation in international forums. Before ICANN, Theresa was Director of Global E-Commerce at MCI, where she was responsible for such issues as Internet service provider liability, data protection, and participation in Internet-related forums, including the formation of ICANN. 

Theresa has a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of California, Davis, a graduate degree in international studies from the University of Vienna, Austria, and a juris doctorate from American University. She served on the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees and Internet Governance Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Committee. Theresa began her career in international human rights. She is fluent in German and is conversant in French.

Today, ICANN Org opened a Public Comment proceeding on a proposed Registration Data Policy Implementation Plan. This plan is the result of three years of work and collaboration including ICANN Org's Policy Implementation Project Team (IPT) and the Community's Implementation Review Team (IRT). The implementation plan includes a draft policy and proposed updates to 20 existing consensus policies and procedures impacted by the Community's recommendations concerning generic top-level domain (gTLD) registration data. The opening of this Public Comment is a tremendous achievement and a true testament to the multistakeholder model at work.

This work first began when the ICANN Board adopted the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data (Temp Spec), which maintained as much of the existing WHOIS system as possible while bringing ICANN's contractual requirements for gTLD registries and registrars into compliance with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Following the Board's adoption of the Temp Spec, the first-ever Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) was initiated by the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council to determine if the Temp Spec should become an ICANN consensus policy as-is or with modifications. In 2019, the ICANN Board adopted the recommendations contained in the EPDP Final Report, and directed the Org to implement the recommendations. The IRT was created to support ICANN Org in developing ICANN consensus policy documentation based on the report's recommendations. The new Registration Data Policy, when fully effective, will replace the current interim requirements.

The draft Registration Data Policy is like no other policy in ICANN's history due to its scope, impact on other policies, research requirements, and origins. The policy touches on some of the most important, complex, and challenging issues facing the Internet ecosystem. The implementation and review teams took great care to examine, analyze, and debate the draft consensus policy that is now available for review.

The Registration Data Policy Implementation Plan Public Comment encompasses 34 policy recommendations from 3 ICANN Board Resolutions:

The implementation plan also includes:

To review all the available documents and provide your feedback, please visit the Registration Data Policy Implementation Plan Public Comment homepage here.

I would like to thank the entire ICANN Community for the extensive time and effort they have put into addressing this issue and its related policies. Getting to this point involved participation, commitment, and patience from a wide range of stakeholders, including, but not limited to, the IRT, GNSO Council, contracted parties, RDAP Working Group, ICANN Board, and the ICANN President and CEO.

I would especially like to thank and congratulate the members of the IRT, who showed extraordinary dedication and support over the past three years to produce this draft consensus policy. Made up of 50 members from 12 different stakeholder groups, as well as individuals, the IRT worked with ICANN org to conduct an in-depth and far-reaching analysis of the EPDP recommendations. Despite the enormous scope of the project and inherent difficulties encountered along the way, the IRT was able to reach alignment through discussion and cooperation.

Going through this policy implementation process was also an important learning experience for ICANN Org. While working through the recommendations with the IRT, the Org implementation team had to come up with new and effective ways to address issues that arose. The complexity and size of this project was unprecedented, but the lessons we learned will help improve the procedures and processes used in the future.

As I mentioned earlier, registration data policy is one of the most challenging issues ICANN faces as we work to create clear and consistent requirements for data collection, redaction, and publication. We have now reached the critical step where the entire ICANN Community can provide their feedback and input on the proposed draft policy and additional policy revisions, which will provide necessary guidance for the Internet community in this area moving forward.

The opening of this Public Comment could not have happened without collaboration among the ICANN Community, Board, and Org. It is a true demonstration of how bottom-up consensus building and the multistakeholder model can effectively address even the most complex and demanding issues. I encourage the ICANN Community to review the implementation plan and provide feedback. If you would like to engage further with the registration data implementation team on this topic, please join the Registration Data Policy Implementation IRT session at ICANN75 on 21 September at 01:00 UTC.

Authors

Theresa Swinehart

Theresa Swinehart

SVP, Global Domains & Strategy
Theresa Swinehart

Theresa Swinehart

SVP, Global Domains & Strategy

Theresa Swinehart is the Senior Vice President of Global Domains and Strategy. In this role, she works with the community, contracted parties, stakeholders, and policymakers to ensure broad and inclusive engagement, consensus-based policymaking through ICANN’s multistakeholder model, and effective, accountable policy implementation. Her responsibilities include policy implementation, review operation, and cross-functional strategic initiatives such as ICANN’s compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. An expert in global Internet governance, Theresa also serves as co-deputy to the President and CEO. Her extensive industry experience, including nearly 20 years as a key contributor to ICANN’s growth and development, gives her a valuable perspective on how ICANN organization can work efficiently and collaboratively to better serve the global Internet community.

Theresa rejoined ICANN after three years as Executive Director of Global Internet Policy at Verizon Communications, where she specialized in emerging issues as well as stakeholder and policy engagement. Prior to this, she served as ICANN’s Vice President of Global and Strategic Partnerships, leading a team responsible for partnership reform, global engagement and outreach, and the participation in international forums. Before ICANN, Theresa was Director of Global E-Commerce at MCI, where she was responsible for such issues as Internet service provider liability, data protection, and participation in Internet-related forums, including the formation of ICANN. 

Theresa has a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of California, Davis, a graduate degree in international studies from the University of Vienna, Austria, and a juris doctorate from American University. She served on the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees and Internet Governance Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Committee. Theresa began her career in international human rights. She is fluent in German and is conversant in French.

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