Registrar privacy

[tritrain]

This is a bit of a newb question, I'm sure.

Should we always go with the privacy protection option when registering domains, when possible?

Is it worth it?

 

[Name Trader]

You should, provided you want to shield your identity and you can afford it. But if you are reselling your domains, it's better to have your real contact info in the whois (so people can contact you).

 

[EdwinJ]

You have to ask yourself if there is a reason you need your identity protected.

If not, then as stub has suggested, your whois provides any potential buyer a chance to contact you, especially if you're in this to resell your names.

 

[pompano]

I always put mine on private. I actually use dynadot.com only $2 for privacy.

 

[DubDubDubDot]

From a domaining aspect it's a really bad idea IMO. The average person does not know that the privacy email forwards to the actual email. Many domainers don't even know this.

 

[carob]

From an SEO point of view this may help because search engines find it more difficult to know if sites belong to the same person.

Some places privacy is free.

Beware of Moniker privacy, it is buggy and has reliability issues.

 

[alien51]

I have come to accept that there are more wackos on the internet, than there are good people.

Some of my websites get continuously bombarded by SQL injection attacks from all sorts of countries... not to mention bots and crawlers that do nothing but harvest information from your site all day long.

I don't know if it will give you more benefit than risks, if you expose your true identity on whois info complete with your home address, phone number, and working email.

I for one, will put up Whois Privacy Protection, then just display my contact email on the webpage itself. I get offers from buyers that way, so i don't think it's a hindrance if you are on whois privacy.

And i sell my domains via escrow like Sedo. So atleast the buyer can be sure that Sedo has checked me out with my real identity being a certified Sedo member.

 

[enlytend]

From an SEO point of view this may help because search engines find it more difficult to know if sites belong to the same person.

Sorry, but I'm going to disagree with this ...

If they're parked, it makes no difference. If you develop a site on one of your domains, use real contact info - use a PO box and a phone number that forwards to your own, if necessary. It's suspected to be quality signal - "real companies" don't use privacy on their domains.

They don't care if you have a lot of domains, as long as you're not trying to do anything sneaky with them.

OTOH, if you have something kinda gray you're trying to hide ... :blink: ... and of course, if there are personal safety issues...

 

[alien51]

It's suspected to be quality signal - "real companies" don't use privacy on their domains.

That's very true. After all, bad guys can't stalk a company. Evenif they did (like what is happening to Sony right now), you don't need to worry that some wacko will wake you up with a sleazy phone call in the middle of the night because you happen to be the domain administrator for Sony. You'll like put the company's phone number on whois.

But a lot of domainers, are just plain individuals trying to make an honest living. If your personal details are public knowledge, it's a safety issue rather than a "quality issue". After all, a buyer just needs an email address to negotiate with you anyway, so put one up on the webpage.

Besides, i think some registrars don't allow a PO Box for an address??

 

[DnDigger]

This is a bit of a newb question, I'm sure.

Should we always go with the privacy protection option when registering domains, when possible?

Is it worth it?

It is worth if it is important to avoid prying eyes, domain whois indexing bots and so forth.

I don't understand what's the purpose of address field in whois. I think registry should show only name or initials, email, country without privacy purchase.

 

[FragrantDomains]

If I had the money I would buy whois privacy. Spam is a problem. Most of my domains for sale are parked at Sedo, where people can make an offer there, or you could put up your own contact form. I haven't received an offer through whois but I have through Sedo. I think interested end users would visit the web page they would be trying to buy.

 

[sonicadam123]

When it comes to the internet, I have severe trust issues.

Companies have used my whois info to send me direct mail in the past, which was very annoying, and i'm sure isn't legal, but I haven't really looked into it.

I just don't trust all the loons about on the web, so I always get privacy if I can.

 

[alien51]

I would even suspect that it is the Domainers who try to sell the idea that Whois Privacy is frowned upon. It's because they'll have a hard time investigating who owns the domains they are scouting.

If you are in the domain trading business with fellow domainers, perhaps no privacy is fair game.

But if you are targetting end-users, they'll know how to contact you if they want your domain so bad. Your email is displayed on the webpage, not on the whois.

 

[scithe]

Paying $5 a domain name seems high if you're dealing with $xx and low $xxx domains. I'd look into getting a PO Box, that shouldn't be more than $20/year. You can get free voice mail phone numbers online.

 

[Meongtae]

I believe in privacy. It should be the standard, and if you want your address shown you pay.