28 replies to this topic

[www.einvestorsforum.com]

Can anyone tell me how can i hide my websites whois registration information.....

[IBBoard]

You can't hide your website's WhoIs information, because that's what WhoIs information is for.

What you can do with .UK domains is if you're an individual is opt out of having your address shown and only show your name. If you're looking at .coms then you need to use a domain registrar who specifically offers some form of privacy protection on domains. NameCheap.com offer a service for free at the moment. If you've bought your domain through ASO then I'm not sure if they offer anything as they're a host and not a registrar.

[AndrewB]

ICANN regulations specify that valid contact information must be available through the WHOIS database for .com domains.

Some Registrars have seen this as an opportunity to make a quick buck by selling privacy packages.
If you registered your domain through ASO, then you can login to the billing area and set the contact information to A Small Orange (there's a radio button to select this).

Caveat: if you change this, then you will need to change it back  before transferring the domain to another Registrar. The EPP key used for transfers is sent to the contact email address with our Registrar. If you change the contact info to ASO, then you'll have to change it back to receive the EPP key.

Also, changing the contact info only affords privacy from the general public. A Small Orange will still have to provide the information to anyone following due process, for example: a court order, subpoena, etc.

[NyteOwl]

Other than perhaps a political or social comentary site owned by someone living under a repressive regime there is really no good reason to do this and frankly creates a questionable image. Check out the search for other threads on this topic.

You can use one of the privacy services to "anonymize" your domain but you risk losing it.

[jednorozec]

Other than perhaps a political or social comentary site owned by someone living under a repressive regime there is really no good reason to do this and frankly creates a questionable image. Check out the search for other threads on this topic.

There is one very good reason to hide your contact information: spammers love to harvest whois info.

[IBBoard]

I know there's always the risk of losing a domain if you don't follow the rules, but how do registrars get away with it if it's not supposed to be allowed? Or does NameCheap's "Privacy Guard" still conform because it provides valid details, just not directly for the registrant?

As jednorozec said, the reason I do it is for privacy/spam protection. All of my domains are personal domains, and I'd rather not have people looking up my info via a WhoIs and finding where I live. Granted, if it was for a company then privacy protection on domains can set a bad image, but I think it's reasonable for individuals.

What ICANN really need to do is what Nominet (the UK registrar) do and let all individuals opt out for free, but not companies. Although having said that I don't know how much they check any of these domain rules, since one .co.uk domain I know of (and old one I held until about six years ago) has contact details for an American individual, and .co.uks are supposed to be for British residents only (unless it's British nationals and they've just moved to America).

[jednorozec]

I used to have all of my domains registered with Godaddy and I paid for privacy on a .us domain.  Then I got an email that said "Tuesday, February 21, 2006 -- in compliance with a mandate of the U.S. government -- Domains By Proxy®'s contact information on your private .US domain name was cancelled."  So that implies that it's perfectly ok to have your whois info hidden as long as what's up there has some sort of valid contact info.  And it's not ICANN that's objecting but the wonderful US government.  wonderful => full of wonder at how bad they've become.

The email address in my whois used to be godaddy@somedomain.  That started getting so much spam that I implemented a spam filter that killed anything to that address that wasn't from godaddy.

I've moved all of my domains to namecheap and have enabled their privacy protection.  I do NOT want my home phone number and address to be visible to anyone who cares to look.  My address used to be a PO Box and I used a modem line for my phone number so having that info visible didn't bother me that much.  That was in the days when the only internet access I could get was dialup.

[IBBoard]

The US government? Now why doesn't that surprise me At least the UK government haven't got to Nominet (that I know of)

[jednorozec]

Don't forget that Bush, Blair and buddies all start with the same letter that bull does.

[IBBoard]

Heading somewhat off-topic now, but at least we're getting rid of Blair by some point in June Hopefully Gordon Brown (what is it with politicians and surnames beginning with B?) won't listen to Bush as much. Then again, he's a politician, so maybe he will.

Now to go and renew my HiveWorldTerra.com WhoisGuard

[NyteOwl]

here is one very good reason to hide your contact information: spammers love to harvest whois info.

This is NOT a good reason. Most research has shown that over 90% of all e-mail addresses harvested for spamming come directly from website pages. Other primary sources are sold mailing lists and usenet newsgroups. It is very inefficient and time consuming to harvest e-mail addresses from DNS records, adn those addresses that are usually found there (admin, tech, billing) are not the sort you'de want to spam in the first place.

Edited by NyteOwl, 25 May 2007 - 02:43 PM.

[jednorozec]

here is one very good reason to hide your contact information: spammers love to harvest whois info.

This is NOT a good reason. Most research has shown that over 90% of all e-mail addresses harvested for spamming come directly from website pages. Other primary sources are sold mailing lists and usenet newsgroups. It is very inefficient and time consuming to harvest e-mail addresses from DNS records, adn those addresses that are usually found there (admin, tech, billing) are not the sort you'de want to spam in the first place.

I used godaddy@somedomain when I had domains registered at godaddy and NEVER used that address anywhere else execpt in the whois records.  So either someone at godaddy sold the address or a spammer got it from whois.  If you give me your email address I would be happy to have all of the spam that I get forwarded to you.

[IBBoard]

What about the "I don't want people to know my house address" side of privacy? Yes, I can see why ICANN and the like may need to know it, but for an individual then why should the rest of the world need to know it?

[IBBoard]

Just been reading the Nominet pages and they list the following:

Why does the WHOIS not show email addresses?
We do not show email addresses to prevent them being used to send spam to. If you want to contact the domain name owner then you should visit their website or try the standard address of postmaster@domain

[NyteOwl]

More likely Nominet sees another gimmick to help market its services to potential customers

[IBBoard]

When Nominet (the actual UK controller, like ICANN, only less American ) offers the privacy protection for free to all non-trading individuals? Doesn't seem like they're marketing any services to me. Nothing beyond a domain name, anyway.

You don't get a choice but to get your domain from Nominet. Yes, you get registrars like 123-reg who are the ones actually selling it to you, but it's all Nominet controlling and maintaining it, so it's not a "buy from us, not the competition" thing.

Edited by IBBoard, 26 May 2007 - 05:34 PM.

[NyteOwl]

Marketing doesn't always mean selling something. SOmetimes it is simply involved in building perceptions and offering features to expand a list. Whether the feature/preception building item has any true value is immaterial

[IBBoard]

*is a touch confused* But you either want a .co.uk domain name or you don't. It's not like they're competing and saying "get a fibble.co.uk subdomain instead of a wibble.co.uk subdomain because we've got more features than wibble have".

I just see it as something sensible for individuals to make them more comfortable with purchasing domains when their details could be placed online. I've had a domain for about seven years, though, so I've probably had my details online at some point through one of my domains, but being an individual it's just better if I don't have to.

To me, marketing means "setting out the impression you want people to have of your product/service so that they are more likely to be suckered in to buying it". Sales is "taking the suckered person and screwing them for everything they're worth after marketing have convinced it's good". That's a slight over-generalisation, but it's how most departments seem to work

[Dany]

Can anyone tell me how can i hide my websites whois registration information.....

Most domain registration services have this option of hiding domain registrant, they put their own info and maintaine in their own databases the info of the genuine owner. It is called "private registration" or "domain by proxy".

For example, if you run whois lookup for www.openify.com in whos lookup you will get registrant info as "Domain By Proxy" etc. See there if this info hiding is sufficient for you.

[IBBoard]

Domains By Proxy is a GoDaddy company, though. Namecheap have their own version which performs about the same function. The other main registrar I use, 123-reg.co.uk, also offer .com domains but they don't appear to offer information hiding on them, only on .co.uk (where it's a built-in feature for non-trading individuals)

I think a "boo" and a "hiss" is in need for the site you listed being hosted on Dreamhost, though