Removal of selected sets of contact information from the RIPE Database

Dear all,

(apologies for duplicates)

As you know, the subject of storage of person and role objects in the
RIPE Database has been the focus of attention for some time,
particularly information being stored in the Database that is not
directly related to RIPE NCC activities and/or some of the people
whose information is stored in the RIPE Database are not aware of the
fact.

During the RIPE 39 meeting in Bologna, I reported on increasing
concerns about data privacy issues and potential legal implications
the RIPE NCC could be involved in due to some of this data.

Call it a coincidence,but we have been approached by the
Dutch Data Protection Agency a few weeks ago to discuss this matter.
The agency's action is taken on behalf of other similar global
agencies who have requested their Dutch counterparts to act as
the RIPE NCC is based in the Netherlands.

As a result of the discussions, the authorities have requested the
RIPE NCC to remove all unreferenced data currently stored in the Database.

This affects mainly person objects related to domain name 
registration information stored in the RIPE Database.

In order to minimise annoyances to users and the membership we would 
like to proceed with the process in a timely manner. In order to 
prevent undue deletions we propose the following process:

1. The following unreferenced person objects will be deleted:
  - objects referenced only from *.de domains, according to the list
provided by DENIC (or list of mntners that define that set);
  - objects that are un-maintained.

2. Those who want to protect their objects in the database should tag
them with a special mntner (RIPE-NCC-PN-NONE-MNT). This procedure is 
solely meant for personal use by individuals interested in keeping 
their personal data in the RIPE Database. However, this is subject to 
change in the future.

3. All of the object deletions will be performed in one step. There 
will be an outage in updates for ~1 day. We plan to start the process 
Friday, 21 September 2001 in the evening and finish by the end of 
Saturday. More concrete details will be provided in the coming weeks.

Best regards,
Joao Damas
RIPE NCC