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Data Processing Specification (DPS) Requests

Overview

If a registry operator or registrar determines that it must enter into a data protection agreement with ICANN in order to comply with applicable law and the Registration Data Policy, the contracted party must request to sign the Data Processing Specification (DPS) with ICANN.

The DPS was drafted to implement the EPDP Phase 1 Policy Recommendations. As such, the scope of the DPS is limited. It provides a contractual framework to enable the processing of gTLD registration data contemplated in the Registration Data Policy to be performed in compliance with applicable data protection law. The DPS is:

  • A Specification to the Registry Agreement (RA) and Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA).
  • An agreement between parties who, independent of each other, control their own processing of personal data that is contemplated by the Registration Data Policy (agreement between "independent controllers"). It sets out high-level data protection requirements for the processing of gTLD registration data ("Personal Registration Data").
  • Drafted to accommodate contracted parties' efforts to comply with any applicable data protection law (not limited, for example, to the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)).
  • Is not a "Data Processing Agreement" and it does not require contracted parties to provide ICANN with greater data access than that required under the RA/RAA and applicable consensus policies.

How to add DPS

ICANN-accredited registrars and gTLD registry operators may elect to add the DPS to their respective agreements with ICANN via the DPS Add Service. To do so, the registry operator or registrar must take the following steps via the applicable method described below:

  1. Confirm your request for DPS Add Service via attestation.
  2. Provide DPS signatory details.
  3. Provide DPS data security breach notification contact information.

Registrars: To request DPS Add Service to your RAA, please fill out the Registrar Data Processing Specification (DPS) Add Service Request Form. The registrar primary contact must email the completed form to [email protected]

Registry operators: Submit a DPS Add Service request in the Naming Services portal.

Resources

Registrar resources:

Registry operators resources:

If you have further questions, please email [email protected] or contact your ICANN account manager.

Submitted DPS Add Service Requests - Registrar

The table below identifies registrars that have executed the Registrar Accreditation Agreement DPS with ICANN.

IANA ID# Registrar Name Effective Date
     
     

Submitted DPS Add Service Requests - Registry Operator

The table below identifies gTLD registry operators that have executed the Registry Agreement DPS with ICANN.

TLD(s) Registry Operator Name Effective Date
     
     
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."