ICANN Corporation allowed several members of the KeyDrive group to make amendments in the Registrar Accreditation Agreement. As it was reported earlier, new version of the agreement adopted in 2013, requires registrars among other things to save information about the registrants for two years after the termination of all relations with them. This paragraph violates law of the majority of European countries. It states that personal data cannot be stored “for longer than it is needed for the purpose for which is was collected”. The maximum storage period of personal data in such cases in Europe cannot exceed 1 year.
French company OVH SAS won a dispute with ICANN the first. It managed to shorten the period of data storage up to 1 year because it presented conclusions of independent lawyers. Later on the same waiver was granted to several German and French registrars. Yesterday members of KeyDrive group were granted data retention waiver as well.
KeyDrive group headquarters are in Luxemburg, however, its members’ data is stored and analyzed on the servers in Germany, which determined ICANN’s decision. It is noteworthy that along with European companies American registrars Moniker and Key-Systems LLC are members of KeyDrive group. Nevertheless, even though ICANN’s agreement does not violate American law, they have also gained a right to change a paragraph concerning data retention.
