domains Domain Privacy Protection is now FREE at GoDaddy.

[Windoms]

It happened (btw).
Privacy is free at GoDaddy.
You can turn that off and display your information in case you want direct inquiries.

You can still pay 10$ for something called "Full Domain Privacy & Protection, Protects your domain from hijacking and honest mistakes like accidental transfer or an expired credit card, as well as prevents spam with a private email address.".

Iit's BS, absolutely unnecessary.
Privacy is free.

Now on to GoDaddy branded landers.

Hello,

You know as GoDaddy's CEO will be at Namescon.
If we are really serious about it.
We could get @Bob Hawkes to deliver a message to Mr Bhutani.
Like the official namepros community (domainers) representative.
Since it's a domainer's conference.
And namepros being the main spot for domainers.
We could easily have someone deliver a message on behalf of domainers.
Someone trustworthy, immune to external influences, and bribery.

Our message:
we want GoDaddy landers and free Whois privacy with discount club lol.
I'm dead serious.

Slow payment, apparently good for fraud protection, crypto payment, let's try to not mention those non-essential points. It's a large corporation.

Keep it simple. Like 3 points.

100% GoDaddy branded landers.
Free Whois privacy with discount club.
Something else.

I suspect he will have 2 bodyguards.
@Joe Styler @Paul Nicks

2 bodyguards which could be our door to Mr Bhutani, if the namepros community is dead serious about conveying its official message through @Bob Hawkes

As a new CEO he must be curious or willing to learn about domain investing or something.
Don't think he's ever returning to Namescon after that lol.
Sometimes stars align. I believe this is our chance.

 

[Windoms]

Oh and if you are paying for privacy, absolutely make sure you cancel those right away before renewal comes. Or you won't be able to renew without paying for privacy.
Which defeats the purpose.

 

[xynames]

I looked - yes - all of my domains still held at GDiddy now show Basic Privacy that still shows that the owner is in whatever state, Country, and also shows the NAME of the registrant.
Registrant Organization: SHOWN
Registrant State/Province: SHOWN
Registrant Country: SHOWN
I am not so sure if this "free privacy" is something new that GD decided to give us "free" or just a response to privacy laws in Europe, where all registrars were forced to mask WhoIs contact information.

But the few domains I have at GD where I paid in the past for privacy, have the full-on "Domains by Proxy, LLC" WhoIs listing, where NO info about the owner is listed.

So, this "free" privacy from GoDaddy doesn't amount to much unless I am missing something.

 

[Samer]

They made it the only option.

This “free privacy” is shoved down our throats.

Beats $9.99 privacy, i guess. but I voted “no”

Samer

 

[mitch007]

They made it the only option.

This “free privacy” is shoved down our throat.

Beats $9.99 privacy, i guess. but I voted “no”

Samer

But you can turn now it off f you want to to show your name and contact info u

 

[Samer]

But you can turn now it off f you want to to show your name and contact info u

Sure? I thought it was standard. Prove it;

Give me a Godaddy name you own, Mitch.

i’ll Whois look it up; bet you; wont say “Mitch”

 

[mitch007]

Sure? I thought it was standard. Prove it;

Give me a Godaddy name you own, Mitch.

i’ll Whois look it up; bet you; wont say “Mitch”

boons.net

 

[Samer]

boons.net

You’re right, Mitch.

Got .com

 

[mitch007]

You’re right, Mitch.

Got .com

Go onto your GD account and turn the "Domain privacy" off. There is an option turn it off in bulk.

 

[Samer]

Go onto your GD account and turn the "Domain privacy" off. There is an option turn it off in bulk.

So it’s not as bad as i initially thought.

What a nice way to phase out $9.99 Privacy

Samer

 

[AEProgram]

important i guess to park the domains somewhere with a way for people to contact as whois wont be an option, I still have some names I did not list anywhere

 

[Samer]

important i guess to park the domains somewhere with a way for people to contact as whois wont be an option, I still have some names I did not list anywhere

Technically if you turn off Privacy like Mitch..

 

[Windoms]

important i guess to park the domains somewhere with a way for people to contact as whois wont be an option, I still have some names I did not list anywhere

People can still contact you through whois, you can turn privacy off and people will see all your information.

I made this thread to make the infornation clear as people were confused on this thread.
Even @Samer had no idea what was going on.

I looked - yes - all of my domains still held at GDiddy now show Basic Privacy that still shows that the owner is in whatever state, Country, and also shows the NAME of the registrant.
Registrant Organization: SHOWN
Registrant State/Province: SHOWN
Registrant Country: SHOWN
I am not so sure if this "free privacy" is something new that GD decided to give us "free" or just a response to privacy laws in Europe, where all registrars were forced to mask WhoIs contact information.

But the few domains I have at GD where I paid in the past for privacy, have the full-on "Domains by Proxy, LLC" WhoIs listing, where NO info about the owner is listed.

So, this "free" privacy from GoDaddy doesn't amount to much unless I am missing something.

Don't know for Europe (are you in Europe?), but for USA and Canada, all you see is country and city.
No name, no company name, no street adress, no email, no phone number.
Which is privacy protection.
Country, city, who knows if thats even yours, GD's, or hosting company's?

 

[Name Trader]

Sorry. I don't get it. What's the difference between "free privacy" and "no privacy". Could somebody please post an example of each? And does it make any difference where you live (except in Europe of course).

 

[Windoms]

Sorry. I don't get it. What's the difference between "free privacy" and "no privacy". Could somebody please post an example of each? And does it make any difference where you live (except in Europe of course).

It means that from now on.
All the domains you have at GoDaddy, by default, won't show your name, email, street address, telephone number if you perform a whois lookup on any website, including GoDaddy. It will only show country, and city.

You still have the option to turn that default option off and show your name, email, address, telephone number on whois lookups if you wish to. I don't think it makes any difference where you live. @Joe Styler

@xynames you are right, it does show the company name if you add one, I just tried and it will show it along with country and city. Still hides name, email, street address and telephone number. I guess for the moment all you need to do is leave the company name field empty.
@Joe Styler why can't we hide company name along with the rest?

 

[pablohc86]

godaddy domain reg fees are like the double of other registrars, they should not go bankrupt giving that for free...

 

[pb]

For me (Europe) with "basic privacy" it shows: Organization, State/Province and Country in whois details.
In the control panel, I don't see an option to turn it off, just the option to upgrade to "full privacy" and "highest protection" or "keep the current plan".

 

[Windoms]

For me (Europe) with "basic privacy" it shows: Organization, State/Province and Country in whois details.
In the control panel, I don't see an option to turn it off, just the option to upgrade to "full privacy" and "highest protection" or "keep the current plan".

To turn it off you have to click on a domain first, from individual domain settings page you can turn it off under privacy settings.
The control panel privacy links are still linking to the old paid pivacy so you cant bulk turn it off yet you have to select a domain first.

 

[pb]

To turn it off you have to click on a domain first, from individual domain settings page you can turn it off under privacy settings.
The control panel privacy links are still linking to the old paid pivacy so you cant bulk turn it off yet you have to select a domain first.

Thanks, found it after scrolling down, previously I was also on the domain's page but I used the first button, just under the domain name and date.

 

[karmaco]

About damn time. Do they want a medal for what most did years ago?

 

[werejack]

You can still pay 10$ for something called "Full Domain Privacy & Protection, Protects your domain from hijacking and honest mistakes like accidental transfer or an expired credit card, as well as prevents spam

Lol... and THERE it is. I knew there must be an upsell, sidesell or 'limited time offer' or some other catch.

 

[werejack]

It happened (btw).
Privacy is free at GoDaddy.

Wow... and it only took them how many years longer than other registrars offering free privacy???

 

[Joe Styler]

It means that from now on.
All the domains you have at GoDaddy, by default, won't show your name, email, street address, telephone number if you perform a whois lookup on any website, including GoDaddy. It will only show country, and city.

You still have the option to turn that default option off and show your name, email, address, telephone number on whois lookups if you wish to. I don't think it makes any difference where you live. @Joe Styler

@xynames you are right, it does show the company name if you add one, I just tried and it will show it along with country and city. Still hides name, email, street address and telephone number. I guess for the moment all you need to do is leave the company name field empty.
@Joe Styler why can't we hide company name along with the rest?

I am not sure why those fields are shown. I know we have a lot of regulations to balance with various countries privacy rules and trying to balance those with customer preference is the balance we tried to achieve here.

 

[tonyk2000]

As for company name being shown - I think it is a GDPR thing (EU), but GoDaddy decided to apply it globally. AFAIK (maybe I'm mistaken) GDPR is intended to protect _personal_ data in the first place, not corporate data. So there is no obligation to hide company name. As for other data - we can only guess, maybe GD saw domains where admin contact John Doe used his personal(home) address everywhere... so all these details are hidden just in case.

@Joe Styler - I checked current default whois output for my domains (non-EU and no whois privacy purchased) and saw no recent changes at all. No name, no phone, no street/city and no email - it is working this way for a long time. Can you explain please, what exact new services (if any) GD offers at this time in mentioned case? The only changes I found are:

- opportunity to opt-in to show full whois

- opportunity to purchase 2 types of extra privacy protection

?

And, 2nd question:

Earlier, at least at some point of time, GD (paid) whois privacy had one side effect. Registrant was required to remove privacy in order to transfer the domain away. OK, not a big deal. WIth one exception: IF the domain is under privacy AND expired, THEN it was simply impossible to remove privacy. Accordingly, there was no practical way to transfer away privacy protected expired domain.

Any changes in this behavior?

Thank you Joe for responding in this thread!

 

[Joe Styler]

California also passed a big privacy law CCPA and there are other jurisdictions Globally in various states of entertaining/passing legislation. That is about as far as my knowledge goes. I am not on the compliance side of the house.

This page lays out the different options best, https://www.godaddy.com/domains/full-domain-privacy-and-protection with a graph.

This explains the rest of what you asked in more depth https://www.godaddy.com/help/privacy-faq-27923?

Transferring out will still involve removing paid privacy options. We are looking into ways to reduce friction as we speak. There are various considerations and we are trying to balance them all and make it as smooth for the customers as possible.