The pros and cons of Whois Privacy for a domainer?

[Allysin]

I'm a beginner domainer with a few hundred domain names. Over the years, some of my domains may have been transferred a few times and now it appears some of them have REDACTED FOR PRIVACY in all of the lines on all Contacts. I just ran into a serious trouble because of this with One.com as explained here:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/pl...olding-me-hostage.1296028/page-2#post-8858352

Second thing that happened was that I turned Privacy off on a domain I have with Fabulous days ago and when I check the Whois today, it shows only the following:

Organization: My First and Last Name
State / Province: It shows the correct state
Country: It shows the correct country

Everything else still says: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY

So here are my thoughts on this:

I should probably create a dedicated Email account for this and remove Privacy from all of my domains and put my real information on all of them. I mean - doesn't it make sense if I am trying to sell the domains to begin with? I know I will get a bunch of SPAM in that Email account but it will also make it easier for potential buyers to contact me, right?

I just have a bad feeling about this as if any of the other registrars give me just a fraction of trouble when removing Privacy/updating my Contact details on each and every domain, I will be in a real pickle!

Here are my questions about this:

1. Any thoughts on this? Is it better in my case NOT to have Whois Privacy at all?
2. When I change the Contact info, would the 60-day transfer lock always apply? I've heard some registrars now give the option to skip the 60-day hold? Which are these?
3. Is using a P.O. Box OK or would putting a real residential address be required?

 

[AEProgram]

it will also make it easier for potential buyers to contact me, right?

If you have a lander pointing to a marketplace not blocked by uBlock, you are good. Regardless of what you do, the whois email will always go to you anyway.

 

[Chieff]

Instead of removing whois it's better to have a self hosted contact form or sale page from aftermarket (Dan, afternic)

without whois you will get tons of spam

60 days transfer lock is for new domain transfer not for updating contact info

contact info can be changed anytime

If the P.O Box able to deliver any letters to you then its fine but it depends on registrar, some registrar's want full address, some registrar don't care
remember having wrong or misleading contact info will leads to no ownership in case of dispute

 

[bhartzer]

I suspect that if a domain is under whois privacy that there's less of a chance that a potential buyer would contact you. If your contact info is on whois for everyone to see, it makes it "easier" for them to contact you. That's just my opinion.

If your domain is under whois privacy, it makes it a LOT more difficult to recover your domain if/when it's stolen. I've been recovering stolen domain names for a few years now. For valuable domains, I wouldn't ever put them under whois privacy. Get a business address and put your name or company name in the whois.

 

[DomainNature]

I suspect that if a domain is under whois privacy that there's less of a chance that a potential buyer would contact you. If your contact info is on whois for everyone to see, it makes it "easier" for them to contact you. That's just my opinion.

If your domain is under whois privacy, it makes it a LOT more difficult to recover your domain if/when it's stolen. I've been recovering stolen domain names for a few years now. For valuable domains, I wouldn't ever put them under whois privacy. Get a business address and put your name or company name in the whois.

Can I put in WHOIS the names of my other family members? Is it allowed by ICANN or it is not advisable to do this?

 

[Future Sensors]

Can I put in WHOIS the names of my other family members? Is it allowed by ICANN or it is not advisable to do this?

No, that would still be false whois information. Only the contact details of the domain holder are allowed (or the anonymized holder).

https://icannwiki.org/False_Whois (a bit outdated, but still useful)

 

[bhartzer]

Can I put in WHOIS the names of my other family members? Is it allowed by ICANN or it is not advisable to do this?

Only if those family members own the domain name. False whois data is not allowed by ICANN.

 

[DomainNature]

Only if those family members own the domain name. False whois data is not allowed by ICANN.

How to make in such a way so the domains will look like they belong to someone else but not me?
I want to remove WHOIS privacy and to not reveal that they belong to me, for the moment, so to generate direct inquiries from interested buyers.

 

[branding]

How to make in such a way so the domains will look like they belong to someone else but not me?
I want to remove WHOIS privacy and to not reveal that they belong to me, for the moment, so to generate direct inquiries from interested buyers.

Set up an offshore company, register the domains in its name.

Or... Use custom dns which will show in whois like:
ContactUs.domain.com
ToBuy.domain.com

Or something similar.

 

[Allysin]

So here is the million dollar question then:

If you put your real physical address on your domains, how do you prove it's YOUR address in case of disputes etc.? As in - there are no government/state issued IDs in the US or UK (other than drivers license but not everybody drives - I don't). Your passport does not have an address in it. So what why where?

Also, is it better to put a company information under your name in case you have a company registered or not? I've read somewhere it's not a good idea to use a company because then people might think you (the company) has money and they will sue you because thinking they can get a payout... or some other reason I can't remember right now...

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Everything else still says: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY

1. Any thoughts on this? Is it better in my case NOT to have Whois Privacy at all?

Privacy or not is an individual decision. It does make verification much easier in general, including when listing domains in a marketplace.

The whois information may not show up correctly even with privacy off. You can contact your registrar, to see if they can correct it. I've noticed that some registrars do a better job than others at making the "privacy off" information readily visible through the various whois platforms.
In my experience, the spam email issue has not been a problem these past few years, especially if your email service has effective spam filtering. From the telephone perspective, there it is best to have the phone number with a service that alerts in advance of possible incoming spam.

If you put your real physical address on your domains, how do you prove it's YOUR address in case of disputes etc.? As in - there are no government/state issued IDs in the US or UK (other than drivers license but not everybody drives - I don't). Your passport does not have an address in it. So what why where?

Well, when you submit the information at the time of registration, you are stating that all of it is accurate. And the registrar may send an email yearly to confirm the continued accuracy. This is the presumption, and I'm not sure that you would need an ID to prove it.

Also, is it better to put a company information under your name in case you have a company registered or not?

That's an interesting question. You can certainly list both yourself and the company/organization.
You can even simply put only the company name in each of the fields Take a look at PG.Com as an example (Proctor and Gamble's domain).

If the domain is the website for a company, it certainly would make sense to have it listed as part of the registration info. Perhaps some folks here that are company owners can weigh in on this?

 

[Sperry8]

If you have a lander pointing to a marketplace not blocked by uBlock, you are good. Regardless of what you do, the whois email will always go to you anyway.

Where is this WhoIs email you speak of? I typed one of my domains into WhoIs and I see no contact email at all (just an abuse email pointed to my registrar).

 

[AEProgram]

Where is this WhoIs email you speak of? I typed one of my domains into WhoIs and I see no contact email at all (just an abuse email pointed to my registrar).

if its a dot com domain usually there will be a registrant email and even if you have privacy, that email should forward to you. Sometimes the registrar will tell people in whois to visit a site to contact the owner.