Registry Data Escrow

As a Registry Operator, you must comply with the Data Escrow provisions of ICANN’s Registry Agreement.

This means you must enter into a separate Registry Data Escrow agreement with an ICANN-approved data escrow provider such as Escode.

The Registry Data Escrow agreement requires registries to periodically transfer registry data for their gTLDs to be held securely in Escrow and safeguards registrar and registrant interests in the event of a registry’s business or technical failure.

Data escrow is one of the five critical registry functions and is a requirement for all new gTLDs. Details are given in Specification 2 of the Registry Agreement.

Registry Operators and ICANN rely on Escode to hold each deposit, and upon certain events, release any retained deposits to ICANN. This ensures that the data associated with registered domain names is never at risk of being lost or inaccessible.

Data to be deposited must be formatted as specified by ICANN, and then encrypted and uploaded via secure FTP (sFTP) transmission. Iron Mountain provides setup instructions to aid implementation.

Registries must make regular deposits to their escrow account that consists of data elements residing within their then-current complete registry database. One full deposit must be made per week, and daily differential deposits during other days are also required. 

Deposits include the necessary registry objects which are then compiled into a file constructed as described in the Registry Data Escrow Specification. Registry objects include data such as:

- Domain names
- Registrant’s contact information (admin, technical & billing)
- Name servers
- IP addresses
- Registrar-specific information
- Dates and times of the object creation

To get started with Registry Data Escrow, schedule an introductory call with a member of the team,