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.

 

[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??

 

[namezest]

If you don't want to sell a domain get whois protection. If you want to unload domains you need to have an easy way to be contacted I agree with the above google voice option 100 percent. That's my 2 pennies

 

[AVeryNiceWeb.COM]

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.

We're pretty sure that Whois guard services cannot own your domain names either. Ownership comes from the company that created your extension, and all its assets depend upon compliance with ICANN.

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?

1. If by "safe" you mean they won't disclose who you are no matter what, (even if an attorney is asking) no, you are not.
2. No spam or unsolicited postal mail (junk mail).
3. Yes.

Kind regards,

 

[Christian Taylor]

We're pretty sure that Whois guard services cannot own your domain names either. Ownership comes from the company that created your extension, and all its assets depend upon compliance with ICANN.



1. If by "safe" you mean they won't disclose who you are no matter what, (even if an attorney is asking) no, you are not.
2. No spam or unsolicited postal mail (junk mail).
3. Yes.

Kind regards,

Thanks for the reply! By "safe," I'm specifically referring to a legal standpoint, and whether it's easier for the protection company to make some BS excuse to take my domain.

 

[AVeryNiceWeb.COM]

Thanks for the reply! By "safe," I'm specifically referring to a legal standpoint, and whether it's easier for the protection company to make some BS excuse to take my domain.

Nobody can take your domain name unless, you're violating trademarks in which case there would be a case against you which could be resolved as per UDRP guidelines.

Keep in mind that people don't buy domains, they do something that resembles more like a lease.

Kind regards,

 

[Name Trader]

Now here's a provoking thought for @Christian Taylor. Which is better for 1) Protecting your Privacy and 2) Protecting your Ownership Rights. Paid or Free Privacy?

Has anyone done any research on Registrars Whois Privacy Services?

 

[Christian Taylor]

Now here's a provoking thought for @Christian Taylor. Which is better for 1) Protecting your Privacy and 2) Protecting your Ownership Rights. Paid or Free Privacy?

Has anyone done any research on Registrars Whois Privacy Services?

You make a good point. I've thought a bit about this. So far, the only difference I've seen in Namecheap's $2.88/year Whoisguard and Uniregistry's free Privacy.link is that Namecheap changes the email automatically once per week. Translation: if it gets added to a spam list, it will be gone within 1 week. With Uniregistry, you're just fresh outta luck.

 

[Name Trader]

You make a good point. I've thought a bit about this. So far, the only difference I've seen in Namecheap's $2.88/year Whoisguard and Uniregistry's free Privacy.link is that Namecheap changes the email automatically once per week. Translation: if it gets added to a spam list, it will be gone within 1 week. With Uniregistry, you're just fresh outta luck.

Do you get better value with paid or free services? Which services give you options to a range of responses? From trash everything to send you everything, and everything in between. How about reliability. Do their services work as specified?

 

[Christian Taylor]

Do you get better value with paid or free services? Which services give you options to a range of responses? From trash everything to send you everything, and everything in between. How about reliability. Do their services work as specified?

Not sure. I guess only time will tell. I've never had an "issue" with Whoisguard. It's always done what it's supposed to. I haven't gotten spam. We'll see if the same is true for Privacy.link.

 

[Name Trader]

Not sure. I guess only time will tell. I've never had an "issue" with Whoisguard. It's always done what it's supposed to. I haven't gotten spam. We'll see if the same is true for Privacy.link.

Did you receive any non-spam messages from Whoisguard? I haven't used them primarily because I don't use NameCheap as a registrar.

I can comment on Dynadot. My main Registrar. And I like their offering. They have 3 levels of privacy. Off/Partial/Full. Partial is what I use because it allows you to put some text in the whois record. Which I used to advertise my domain sales website. They say all email to their privacy is viewed by a person (it must be a boring job). They do forward to me relevant emails, like domain enquiries, and other technical stuff I think I should read. I think they do an excellent job at filtering out all the trash. And I've never missed anything important, that I could be aware from another source. Price is $2/yr for the lower levels of Bulk Pricing and free at the top level of bulk pricing.

 

[Christian Taylor]

Did you receive any non-spam messages from Whoisguard? I haven't used them primarily because I don't use NameCheap as a registrar.

I can comment on Dynadot. My main Registrar. And I like their offering. They have 3 levels of privacy. Off/Partial/Full. Partial is what I use because it allows you to put some text in the whois record. Which I used to advertise my domain sales website. They say all email to their privacy is viewed by a person (it must be a boring job). They do forward to me relevant emails, like domain enquiries, and other technical stuff I think I should read. I think they do an excellent job at filtering out all the trash. And I've never missed anything important, that I could be aware from another source. Price is $2/yr for the lower levels of Bulk Pricing and free at the top level of bulk pricing.

I only received non-spam items from Whoisguard when I initiated it (i.e. WHOIS contact verification). Both Whoisguard and Privacy.link don't offer any options. It's simply "on or off." No options for email filter, no options for text on WHOIS page. Doesn't bother me personally, but I can understand why you'd want that.

 

[BrandClub.com]

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??

Almost no end-users know about WHOIS ... so using privacy will have a very small impact on your sales. End-users come via marketplaces and landing pages (type-in). I moved over 3K domains to Uniregistry just because of FREE PRIVACY and I´m so happy I did it. Also there are a many reasons to hide your private details (Just don´t want to post them publicly).

 

[BrandClub.com]

Do you get better value with paid or free services? Which services give you options to a range of responses? From trash everything to send you everything, and everything in between. How about reliability. Do their services work as specified?

@Christian Taylor ´s case do not apply to domainers ... He owns 3 domains so paying PRIVACY for 3 domains is easy, paying it for hundreds or thousands of domains is very different ! Just my 2 cents.

 

[Name Trader]

@Christian Taylor ´s case do not apply to domainers ... He owns 3 domains so paying PRIVACY for 3 domains is easy, paying it for hundreds or thousands of domains is very different ! Just my 2 cents.

It certainly is that

 

[Christian Taylor]

@Christian Taylor ´s case do not apply to domainers ... He owns 3 domains so paying PRIVACY for 3 domains is easy, paying it for hundreds or thousands of domains is very different ! Just my 2 cents.

Yep. But I've been told that if I hang around long enough, I'll start buying more domains haha

 

[Deathstarr]

1 thing to think about is I am trying to contact the owner of a said domain that has expired. He has whois protection and the whois protection email is not working because the domain name is expired. Food for thought.