ICANN considers future of Registrar Data Escrow Program.

Domain Name Wire has learned that ICANN is considering handling whois escrow services internally.

Registrar Data Escrow Program (RDE) is currently managed by Iron Mountain Intellectual Property Management, a third party. Its contract ends in November. RDE is a program that escrows a registrar’s whois information in case of registrar failure.

In a survey sent to domain name registrars, ICANN asks respondents if they would consider using an RDE service operated directly by ICANN. It then asks what concerns people would have with using an RDE managed by ICANN.

Some of the potential concerns include:

-Data security
-Potential ICANN staff access to data
-General distrust of ICANN
-Switching costs
-Concerns about customer support

ICANN will launch an exploratory Request For Proposals process in the coming weeks.