Hi Councillors, Attached is the latest activity brief from the GNSO council (also copied below for quick reference) . Their last meeting was 19 January and next one will be 16 Feb 2017. Regards ---- Registration Directory Service (formerly WHOIS) Review Team ICANN is seeking volunteers to serve on the second review of Registration Directory Service (formerly known as the WHOIS Review). The deadline for applications has been extended to 20 January 2017. Thick Whois Implementation The Thick Whois Implementation Review Team (IRT) have written to the GNSO regarding challenges associated with implementation of thick Whois relating to developments in privacy laws. The developments relate to: * New requirements under EU General Data Protection Regulation (into force May 2018). * In the wake of the invalidation of the US-EU Safe Harbor Program and development of the EU-US Privacy Shield, the use of consent to effectuate transfers of personal data has been called into question by regulators in the EU. The IRT believes that these EU-based developments must be taken into account by registries and registrars as they seek to implement consensus policy regarding Thick Whois while remaining compliant with applicable privacy and data protection laws. Letter from the IRT<https://gnso.icann.org/en/drafts/gnso-appointments-procedure-15dec16-en.pdf> Erika Mann and Michele Neylon are to work with staff to develop possible responses to the IRT letter. In the meantime ICANN have announced that all ICANN gTLD contracted parties must update their registration data directory services to comply with the Thick Whois Transition Policy for .COM, .NET and .JOBS. See announcement<https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2-2017-02-01-en> GNSO Representatives to 2nd Security, Stability & Resiliency Review Team The GNSO Council nominated James Gannon, Denise Michel, Emily Taylor as primary candidates for the SSR2RT Planning for ICANN58 Aiming to ensure overlapping sessions in situations of clashes are kept to a minimum with no overlap of groups. The EU Data Protection session is tentatively scheduled and that the Data Protection Commissioners are seeking endorsement from the GAC and the GNSO Other * GNSO mailing list upgrade - The mailing list software (Majordomo) used for running the GNSO Council mailing list is at the end of its life. ICANN IT, will be migrating the list to a new platform (Mailman) on which all of the GNSO mailing lists will now be hosted. * GNSO to run webinar on Curative Rights Protection Mechanisms for IGO/INGO on 7 February 2017 to outline preliminary recommendations * Latest schedule for ICANN58 meeting sees GNSO/ccNSO meeting on day 3 at 12.15-13.45 Next GNSO Council meeting - 16 February 2017 [cid:image001.png@01D27FAF.9CCF95A0] Patrick Myles Data Analyst CENTR - Belliardstraat 20, 1040 Brussels, Belgium tel +32 2 627 55 50 - mob +61 405 60 67 15 www.centr.org<http://www.centr.org/> - Twitter<https://twitter.com/CENTRnews> - Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/centrnews> - LinkedIn<https://www.linkedin.com/company/centr> - Skype: pat_centr