advice Is WHOIS protection a bad idea?

[Christian Taylor]

For as long as I've owned domain names, I've always purchased WHOIS protection. I don't want my personal address out there. But then I started to get a bit curious - what am I really paying for? Is WHOIS protection any better than just using a P.O. box? Then I discovered.. by using WHOIS protection, you do not own your domain - the protection agency does, and they are licensing it back to you. This obviously seems a bit sketchy to me, and wanted to reach out to the community and ask what you guys think.

1. Is WHOIS protection safe from a legal standpoint?
2. What benefits does WHOIS protection have over a P.O. box?
3. Do you personally choose to have WHOIS protection?

By the way, I am using Whoisguard as my protection of choice.

 

[Julio]

I was in your position not to long ago and I just decided to stop using it completely. Mainly because I want to sell my domain names and potential buyers can contact me. For the phone number I use a google voice and for the email I use my webmaster@ my domain name.

 

[Christian Taylor]

I was in your position not to long ago and I just decided to stop using it completely. Mainly because I want to sell my domain names and potential buyers can contact me. For the phone number I use a google voice and for the email I use my webmaster@ my domain name.

Thanks for the input! I'm not interested in selling domains, so that's not an issue for me. I understand why you did it though. My main concern is about legal matter. Since Whoisguard legally owns it, does that mean they can just "take" my domain if they decide they want it?

 

[todaygold]

First off, why are you paying for privacy? Many great registrars offer it completely free.
Second off, you have an agreement with the privacy provider, they can't just one day decide to take your name because they like it. And playing devil's advocate, if they did want to come up with some B.S. reason to take it, it really wouldn't matter if you have privacy or not, because the registrar would just lock your account and claim you broke their TOS, regardless of whether you have privacy or not.
Third, if you are worried about domain loss, you are far more likely to lose your domain because a scammer uses your WHOIS info to either break into your account, trick you into giving up details or contacting the registrar and pretending to be you by using the details listed in WHOIS.

 

[Julio]

That was another issue I had that made me turn off whois protection also. I also thought about getting myself a P.O box like you mentioned but here in NYC it cost about $100 a year it's a cost that I wanted to avoid.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

~95% of endusers are not aware about WHOIS at all.
So enabled or disabled - has minimal impact on your sales...

Also, if you don't respond on UDRP-requests due to enabled Privacy - it may be considered as "bad faith"...

I use Privacy in some very rare cases only.

 

[Christian Taylor]

First off, why are you paying for privacy? Many great registrars offer it completely free.
Second off, you have an agreement with the privacy provider, they can't just one day decide to take your name because they like it. And playing devil's advocate, if they did want to come up with some B.S. reason to take it, it really wouldn't matter if you have privacy or not, because the registrar would just lock your account and claim you broke their TOS, regardless of whether you have privacy or not.
Third, if you are worried about domain loss, you are far more likely to lose your domain because a scammer uses your WHOIS info to either break into your account, trick you into giving up details or contacting the registrar and pretending to be you by using the details listed in WHOIS.

Thanks, I appreciate your reply. What are some of the "great registrars" that offer it free? I've been very happy with Namecheap, and I didn't think $2.88 per year was expensive at all. Most registrars charge $10+ per yer for WHOIS protection.

 

[todaygold]

Thanks, I appreciate your reply. What are some of the "great registrars" that offer it free? I've been very happy with Namecheap, and I didn't think $2.88 per year was expensive at all. Most registrars charge $10+ per yer for WHOIS protection.

Just to name a few off the top of my head, Namesilo, Google Domains, Name.com (with coupon code), Hover, Internet.bs, uniregistry...and I'm sure there are more, those are just the ones I can think of right now.

 

[Hootsifer]

Godaddy is like $7.99 extra.

 

[Christian Taylor]

Just to name a few off the top of my head, Namesilo, Google Domains, Name.com (with coupon code), Hover, Internet.bs, uniregistry...and I'm sure there are more, those are just the ones I can think of right now.

Wow, thanks! I had no idea that .com domains could be as cheap as $8.99 per year. Although, the panels on those registrars would drive me crazy due to how old they are. I do really like Namecheap, and I'd have trouble switching from them. Regardless, I have new education. Thanks!

 

[todaygold]

Wow, thanks! I had no idea that .com domains could be as cheap as $8.99 per year. Although, the panels on those registrars would drive me crazy due to how old they are. I do really like Namecheap, and I'd have trouble switching from them. Regardless, I have new education. Thanks!

No problem. I know switching from one user interface you are familiar with to another can be a pain, but (in my opinion at least), it was worth it for me.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

FREE Privacy at Epik + FREE Escrow for their domains...
+ individual pricelist, just ask...

 

[Domains - Wanted]

Thanks, I appreciate your reply. What are some of the "great registrars" that offer it free?

Epik.com and Namesilo.com.
At Epik.com, you can avail yourself of the NamePros special rate of $8.10

Renewal fees, free WHOIS Privacy and above average tech support aside, there are other reasons for using these two registrars if you are planning on selling/leasing any domains (which you're not, so I won't go into this here).

As for your original question: domains are valuable assets and I prefer having them registered to my own name. Should I need WHOIS Privacy for some reason, I'd make sure to have a printed, sealed, signed and witnessed Declaration of Trust in hand.

Welcome to NamePros!

 

[TerriJ]

I didn't even think about this (WhoIs privacy in terms of selling domains)

I do own a PO Box & Google Voice #.
Maybe I will switch to public view.
But doesn't this restart the 60 day lock all over again to transfer domains from one registrar to another? (My current contact info is my home address hidden by WhoIs Privacy.)

I too use Namecheap.

 

[Christian Taylor]

Thanks everyone for the help/advice! I'm gonna stick with Namecheap, simply because I've been very happy with them. The websites for NameSilo and Internet.bs just don't look super amazing to me, and I've heard the panels are "meh." I liked Uniregistry but it's owned by a domain investor which is a bit strange to me (is he going to spy on users and swipe up similar domains that I buy and re-sell them to me at an absurd rate)? Namecheap is only about $3 more per domain per year than Uniregistry, and since I'm happy with Namecheap and have other products (email hosting) with them, I'll be staying with them.

Another note: I don't buy and sell domains, I'm not in that business. I normally have 2-3 personal domains at any given time, and that's it. I can see how these $2-3 per year savings could make a HUGE difference if you have a large portfolio, but for me it's always less than 3 domains.

If I ever need a temporary cheap domain though, I know where to go!

As for the WHOIS protection (the entire reason for this thread), I think @todaygold really hit it on the head!

 

[GoKaizen]

http://anonymize.com/

 

[Christian Taylor]

anonymize.com

I saw/considered that, but thanks to the recommendations of @todaygold, I made the step of transferring my first domain to Uniregistry, who offers free WHOIS protection. I gotta say, so far, I'm really happy!

 

[todaygold]

I saw/considered that, but thanks to the recommendations of @todaygold, I made the step of transferring my first domain to Uniregistry, who offers free WHOIS protection. I gotta say, so far, I'm really happy!

Glad to hear you're happy about. Just curious, any particular reason you picked them out of all the registrars listed in this thread?

 

[Christian Taylor]

Glad to hear you're happy about. Just curious, any particular reason you picked them out of all the registrars listed in this thread?

The intuitive panel and clean graphics. I'm a bit "snobby" when it comes to graphics. I like them to be modern, simple, and flat. NameSilo, Internet.bs, and other options all had the same issue: the websites/panels were all stuck in 2007 (or if they weren't, the prices were so close to Namecheap that it wouldn't be worth my time to switch). Additionally, I absolutely love how Uniregistry has a fully functioning mobile app!

 

[todaygold]

The intuitive panel and clean graphics. I'm a bit "snobby" when it comes to graphics. I like them to be modern, simple, and flat. NameSilo, Internet.bs, and other options all had the same issue: the websites/panels were all stuck in 2007 (or if they weren't, the prices were so close to Namecheap that it wouldn't be worth my time to switch). Additionally, I absolutely love how Uniregistry has a fully functioning mobile app!

I had a feeling that's what you were going to say!

 

[Christian Taylor]

I had a feeling that's what you were going to say!

Just discovered a new plus: TopCoin (TCP). It's a little strangely structured, and really convoluted, but I determined that domains can be renewed at $9.25. They give you a 100 TCP bonus for starting, plus I already got 4.44 TCP for transferring my domain. To make a long story short: I have an enormous pile of TopCoins, and they give you more TopCoin than you can ever spend, so I essentially can keep getting domain renewals at $9.25. Pretty sick!

 

[todaygold]

Just discovered a new plus: TopCoin (TCP). It's a little strangely structured, and really convoluted, but I determined that domains can be renewed at $9.25. They give you a 100 TCP bonus for starting, plus I already got 4.44 TCP for transferring my domain. To make a long story short: I have an enormous pile of TopCoins, and they give you more TopCoin than you can ever spend, so I essentially can keep getting domain renewals at $9.25. Pretty sick!

So do you think you are going to move all of your domains over from Namecheap?

 

[Christian Taylor]

So do you think you are going to move all of your domains over from Namecheap?

Yep, thinking I will. I may move another one over today. I do want to compare several registrars in a YouTube video, though, so perhaps I will try NameSilo/Internet.bs for a domain.

 

[Christian Taylor]

So do you think you are going to move all of your domains over from Namecheap?

To be clear: for me personally, I'm sold on Uniregistry. I do need to find a way to test some other registrars for my video though.

 

[Charles Sweeney]

I have never used WHOIS "protection". In the first place, it wasn't available when I started domaining in 2000. More so because I like to be associated with my names, particularly if I think they are half-decent, and as someone else said, it makes it VERY easy for prospective buyers to contact you. Why on Earth would you register a name to sell then hide your contact details??