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GoDaddy Will Start Masking Our WhoIs Info Jan 25th

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Ategy

Arif M, NameCult.com TheDomainSocial.comTop Member
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I just got the following email quoted below

For standard domain owners this is probably good ... but for domainers who want to be found via whois this is might be something we might want to be opt out of.

I'm thinking the real question is what will the searches actually see?

@Paul Nicks .. could you fill us in on the specific details of the change. Like what the searches will actually see, and some examples of "authorised" bulk searches.

Thanks :)

WHOIS masking starts January 25.

This service will block some of your contact details through automated access points.

We're always looking for ways to protect your information online. To help slow the flood of spam that can occur when you register a domain without privacy services, WHOIS masking of certain personal data will be turned on for all domains on January 25.

This service will limit a potential spammer's ability to access your first name, last name, email and phone number through automated means (also known as Port 43 access). We'll continue to publish full WHOIS details to users of our CAPTCHA-protected, web-based WHOIS system, as required.

Here's how to opt out:

If you still want your information to be available via automated sources of public WHOIS data, you can opt out anytime using one of these options:


• Call us at 866-938-1119.

• Send your request to [email protected]. We may ask for additional information for verification purposes.

Domain Privacy still matters.

While we hope this service will help cut down on spam calls and emails, because registration information is still made available publicly, Domain Privacy is still the best way to maintain anonymity online. WHOIS masking will only restrict spammers through automated bulk access sources.

To learn more, check out this help article:
https://ca.godaddy.com/help/masking...hared-via-whois-automated-access-points-27421
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Just add your domains as an alias in cpanel and toss up an index file. Set your name servers to your host and now all domains go to your website. Clients (prospective buyers) will now see what YOU want them to.

The address bar will show the website the client types in and if you add a simple google analytics code to your index file (homepage) you will see how many clicks on each domain as the referrer.

The system works fantastic and I never worry about whois or who sees what. You see what I want you to see including my contact number and email.

As a legitimate domaining business I need people at my webpage every single time one of my domains gets viewed. I base my selling price on how many times each domain is punched into the address bar per year.

Basically I show whois and never pay for privacy but even .ca domains in Canada now hide a good portion of whois by default. There is no fighting that, it will happen across the board as privacy becomes more important.

Everyone already has the best tools available, it's called your website. Does not matter what whois says if you have the information available via the address bar/website.
 
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I think the "people claiming to be Godaddy" is one of the main driving factors - of course the other benefits GD will receive I am sure are appreciated by them.

Excerpt from DNW:

GoDaddy files lawsuit to take down Whois spammers

GoDaddy has filed a lawsuit (pdf) in an effort to take down one of the groups that it alleges is spamming offers to domain name owners and pretending to be affiliated with the registrar.
 
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Putting a little more thought into it - you'd imagine Godaddy may possibly make some exemptions, otherwise there could be some major issues that arise. Such as - how will a marketplace verify ownership on an automated basis? Afternic, of course, wouldn't be affected - but what about Sedo and others?

If they do decide to make some exemptions on the masking, would they also exempt the big whois archive services? If they did exempt them - would that go against the purpose of GD's goal?
 
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@Michael M .. If you go to the help page, it does mention there will still be "authorised" access.
https://ca.godaddy.com/help/masking...hared-via-whois-automated-access-points-27421

I suppose those are the types of exceptions? But that's why I tagged Paul Nicks above .. just to get an idea of more of the specifics.

Obviously .. at the end of the day .. needing to go directly to GoDaddy for WhoIs also gets more eyes on GoDaddy ads and product offers. As well as gives them a better chance of getting a commission if you have your domains listed with them. So there definitely will be increased revenues for them .. although to be fair .. DEPENDING ON THE SPECIFICS .. I don't think that's the main reason.

I think there has been a rise in phishing emails from people claiming to be GoDaddy .. it really hurts their reputation more than anything else .. as well as clogs up customer service time (costing them a lot of money) .. I suspect that might be the primary motivation.
 
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Maybe a stupid question, but if they block access to domain owners email through automated means, how will registrars send email confirmation to us when we transfer out from GoDaddy? I've often had trouble with transferring domains out of obscure dropcatching registrars where WHOIS was incomplete/missing/broken and could therefore not be obtain by the receiving registrar (so it appears that transfer emails are based on public WHOIS only).

Or is there a registrar to registrar connection/port where registrars can pull such info from for transfer purposes? Based on transfers that have been stuck for months on end in the past, where I had to wait for the registrar to sort out the public WHOIS, I haven't seen anything indicating that there is such a thing. Though I'm not familiar with the technicalities of this part of the domain transfer system, so perhaps somebody more knowledgeable about it can chime in.
I do the same and absolutely hate this behavior of GD... To add, it is further complicated by the fact that the captcha never shows up for me on Firefox which is my primary browser.
Also having a lot of trouble with their captcha. Would be great if they used another captcha service. Recaptcah seems to hate my browser or IP or something, because even if I click on the streetsigns and storefronts and car for 15 minutes I can't access GD WHOIS.
 
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Real quick to address some of the main points on the thread.

We did this in order to help people reduce spam and protect our customers from companies soliciting them pretending to be us or affiliated with us or just spamming them based on new registrations. We have about 14 million customers and we do not want them to fall victim to any scams.

- I am not a lawyer, we do have a lot working here and outside counsel, we are not breaking any laws nor are we out of ICANN compliance with this change based on what the lawyers told me. We consult counsel from many sides in addition to legal before any changes are made. We take ICANN policy seriously.
- Your names can still sell. If someone is trying to find you they can. After using the captcha on our site they can get the full whois info. If anyone is savvy enough to use the whois to try and find you they are also very likely savvy enough to see the message on 3rd party whois searches saying for full info go to GoDaddy as was pointed out above in the thread.
- We do not block legitimate use of port 43 bulk lookups for transfers etc. This will not impact your transfers to other registrars. We allow them access for legitimate reasons.
- If for some reason you really want your information available to everyone including spammers you can easily opt out and your whois will show up as it used to.

I published a comment on our community page which explains the changes and how to opt out here:

https://www.godaddy.com/Domain-Investing/Whois-Masking-what-is-changing/m-p/88329#M788
 
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I had recently posted this as well under News.... Maybe these threads should be merged?

https://www.namepros.com/threads/godaddy-whois-masking-starts-january-25.1059679/

From what I understand basically the general bot public, which would include domain whois archives, the information would be omitted or masked. I am not sure if they have deals with certain groups that would exempt them or not.

Of course one can still go to Godaddy's WhoIs web interface to receive full details. This is how most anyone looking at your domain will find you, so personally I don't believe I will opt out. (though if they whois through other registries, unless they are exempt, your information will be masked. Though in this situation there is a link provided that redirects to godaddy for full details)
 
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Just add your domains as an alias in cpanel and toss up an index file. Set your name servers to your host and now all domains go to your website. Clients (prospective buyers) will now see what YOU want them to.
...

Am I the only one who looks at whois more than actual websites? Bad domainer habit I'm thinking? lol
 
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Am I the only one who looks at whois more than actual websites? Bad domainer habit I'm thinking? lol
Nope you're not alone. 95% of the times, I look up whois before I even visit the domain/website
 
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Putting a little more thought into it - you'd imagine Godaddy may possibly make some exemptions, otherwise there could be some major issues that arise. Such as - how will a marketplace verify ownership on an automated basis? Afternic, of course, wouldn't be affected - but what about Sedo and others?

If they do decide to make some exemptions on the masking, would they also exempt the big whois archive services? If they did exempt them - would that go against the purpose of GD's goal?

Txt records would help here.
 
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So that buyers can find my WHOIS info. I could use a WHOIS privacy service if I needed this.
Buyers can still find your whois. Your whois is not being hidden (privacy) or blocked. Automated whois information collection is being blocked
 
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Maybe a stupid question, but if they block access to domain owners email through automated means, how will registrars send email confirmation to us when we transfer out from GoDaddy? I've often had trouble with transferring domains out of obscure dropcatching registrars where WHOIS was incomplete/missing/broken and could therefore not be obtain by the receiving registrar (so it appears that transfer emails are based on public WHOIS only).

Or is there a registrar to registrar connection/port where registrars can pull such info from for transfer purposes? Based on transfers that have been stuck for months on end in the past, where I had to wait for the registrar to sort out the public WHOIS, I haven't seen anything indicating that there is such a thing. Though I'm not familiar with the technicalities of this part of the domain transfer system, so perhaps somebody more knowledgeable about it can chime in.
The latter is the case. This was confirmed by @Joe Styler on another thread (I'll try to search for it and link to it from here)
 
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Or is there a registrar to registrar connection/port where registrars can pull such info from for transfer purposes? Based on transfers that have been stuck for months on end in the past, where I had to wait for the registrar to sort out the public WHOIS, I haven't seen anything indicating that there is such a thing. Though I'm not familiar with the technicalities of this part of the domain transfer system, so perhaps somebody more knowledgeable about it can chime in.

The latter is the case. This was confirmed by @Joe Styler on another thread (I'll try to search for it and link to it from here)

Found it - https://www.namepros.com/threads/go...ry-via-whois-impossible.1051677/#post-6455055
 
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According to the current Registrar Accreditation Agreement:

(quote begin)

3.3.1 At its expense, Registrar shall provide an interactive web page and, with respect to any gTLD operating a "thin" registry, a port 43 Whois service (each accessible via both IPv4 and IPv6) providing free public query-based access to up-to-date (i.e., updated at least daily) data concerning all active Registered Names sponsored by Registrar in any gTLD. Until otherwise specified by a Consensus Policy, such data shall consist of the following elements as contained in Registrar's database:

3.3.1.1 The name of the Registered Name;

3.3.1.2 The names of the primary nameserver and secondary nameserver(s) for the Registered Name;

3.3.1.3 The identity of Registrar (which may be provided through Registrar's website);

3.3.1.4 The original creation date of the registration;

3.3.1.5 The expiration date of the registration;

3.3.1.6 The name and postal address of the Registered Name Holder;

3.3.1.7 The name, postal address, e-mail address, voice telephone number, and (where available) fax number of the technical contact for the Registered Name; and

3.3.1.8 The name, postal address, e-mail address, voice telephone number, and (where available) fax number of the administrative contact for the Registered Name.

The agreement between the Registry Operator of a gTLD and Registrar may, if approved by ICANN in writing, state alternative required data elements applicable to that gTLD, in which event, the alternative required data elements shall replace and supersede Subsections 3.3.1.1 through 3.3.1.8 stated above for all purposes under this Agreement but only with respect to that particular gTLD.

(quote end)

@Paul Nicks - can you please confirm that there is an ICANN-approved agreement between GoDaddy and Verisign Registry, which includes current and Jan. 25th GoDaddy whois policies for .com and .net, which are obviously not the same as we see in para. 3.3.1 of Registrar Accreditation Agreement?
 
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Joe, I like current GD setup. But, as a domaining professional, I always read technical documents, rfcs, etc. I'm trying to see the technical document [or tech part of a legal document] which serves as a basis for current setup @ a registrar I am using. Not a legal document... And I am unable to find any. No, I have no time or interest in contacting ICANN. Sorry that GD is/was unable to post more detailed explanation. In fact, with a good explanation other registrars might do the same, and it will be good for registrants and the industry in general.
 
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I don't mind this as in 15 years of selling domains 90%+ of all of my offers/sales have generated from my own sales pages as that's where my domains point. Can recall 1 domain being sold by whois contact for $7500 but that buyer wouldn't be using an automated process to obtain my email so this should cut down on the junk in my spam box for web hosting, etc... which I do myself anyway as I have my own servers.
 
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While I generally like this approach of GD to hide contact details (except the registrants name) on port 43 whois, I do not understand why they are also hiding domain status and domain dates (creation/update/expiry).

This is just technical domain data which often is essential to know/see.
It is not sufficent to get these values from Versign whois, as the data at the registrar can and does differ in some cases.
 
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This post I did on GoDaddy's community help pages explains the changes and how to opt out if you do not want your whois info to be limited on port 43 automated lookups. https://www.godaddy.com/Domain-Investing/Whois-Masking-what-is-changing/td-p/88329
 
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Thanks Joe but when I went to that URL I got this page:

Show attachment 78120
If may not show if you are not in the US. If you pick US English from the top left side of the main GoDaddy page you can pick a main country for GoDaddy to show you on the website. If you do that please manually revert the country and language back to your home country because it will show the wrong currency etc.

Here is the opt out info if you want it:
Here’s how to opt out:


If you still want your information to be available via automated sources of public WHOIS data, you can opt out anytime using one of these options:



  • Call us at +1 (480) 505-8877.
  • Send your request to [email protected]. We may ask for additional information for verification purposes.
 
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I am also unable to see this post on GD website. I am not in U.S., but have selected US/English/USD before. I see exactly the same as the screenshot posted by @AGAME shows - it says "EN" geo and shows US-based support phones
 
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Maybe my link is bad somehow. you can get there by going to the main page https://www.godaddy.com/ and clicking on domain investing as the thread.
 
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Here is the article :
We’re making improvements to protect you from spam.

Starting January 25, your WHOIS contact details will be masked from automated access points.



This service will block some of your contact details through automated access points.



We’re always looking for ways to protect your information online. To help slow the flood of spam that can occur when you register a domain without privacy services, WHOIS masking of certain personal data will be turned on for all domains on January 25.



This service will limit a potential spammer’s ability to access your first name, last name, email and phone number through automated means (also known as Port 43 access). We’ll continue to publish full WHOIS details to users of our CAPTCHA-protected, web-based WHOIS system, as required.



Here’s how to opt out:


If you still want your information to be available via automated sources of public WHOIS data, you can opt out anytime using one of these options:



  • Call us at +1 (480) 505-8877.
  • Send your request to [email protected]. We may ask for additional information for verification purposes.


Domain Privacy still matters.


While we hope this service will help cut down on spam calls and emails, because registration information is still made available publicly, Domain Privacy is still the best way to maintain anonymity online. WHOIS masking will only restrict spammers through automated bulk access sources.



To learn more, check out this help article. https://www.godaddy.com/help/maskin...hared-via-whois-automated-access-points-27421



Important to note – If you are concerned about potential buyers of your domain not being able to find your information they can still see it after filling out a captcha. This change only impacts automated requests to cut back on spammers which gather the information in bulk.
 
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What you have is the registry output. Note that you are querying the Verisign whois server, and it provides a pointer to the registrar whois server for the registrant details.
 
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