Domain privacy

Domain privacy is a service offered by a number of domain name registrars. A user buys privacy from the company, who in turn replaces the user's info in the WHOIS with the info of a forwarding service (for email and sometimes postal mail, done by a proxy server).

Level of anonymity

Privacy by default

Note that some domain extensions have privacy caveats:

Implications

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) broadly requires that the mailing address, phone number and e-mail address of those owning or administrating a domain name be made publicly available through the "WHOIS" directories. However, that policy enables spammers, direct marketers, identity thieves, or other attackers to use the directory for personal information about those people. Although ICANN has been exploring changing WHOIS to enable greater privacy, there is a lack of consensus among major stakeholders as to what type of change should be made.[10] However, with the offer of private registration from many registrars, some of the risk has been mitigated.

Litigation

With "private registration", the private registration service can be the legal owner of the domain. This has occasionally resulted in legal problems. Ownership of a domain name is given by the organization name of the owner contact in the domain's Whois record. There are typically four contact positions in a domain's Whois record, Owner, Administrator, Billing, and Technical. Some registrars will not shield the Owner organization name in order to protect the ownership of the domain name.

Ownership of domains held by a privacy service was also an issue in the RegisterFly case, in which a registrar effectively ceased operations and then went bankrupt. Customers encountered serious difficulties in regaining control of the domains involved.[11] ICANN has since remedied that situation by requiring all accredited registrars maintain their customers' contact data in escrow. In the event a registrar loses its accreditation, gTLD domains along with the escrowed contact data will be transferred to another accredited registrar.

There have been several lawsuits against NameCheap, Inc. for its role as owner/registrant. See http://randazza.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/solid-host-v-namecheap.pdf and also in Silverstein v. Alivemax, et al. Los Angeles Superior Court Case Number BC480994.

See also

References

  1. "Private domains not so private?". CNET News.com. 2005-08-15. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  2. Thomas Roessler (2003-04-15). "More on Domains By Proxy".
  3. Wendy Seltzer (2003-04-11). "proxy fight [Domains-by-proxy update]". Retrieved 2008-06-16.
  4. nic.at GmbH (2010-05-21). "Change of nic.at Whois policy". Retrieved 2014-05-05 02-15 CET. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  5. DENIC eG (2014-05-05). "Datenschutz". Retrieved 2014-05-05 02-35 CET. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  6. EURid. ".eu domain name WHOIS policy". Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  7. Van Miltenburg, Olaf (12 January 2010). "SIDN anonimiseert whois-gegevens" [SIDN anonymizes whois data]. Tweakers (in Dutch). Retrieved 4 September 2014.
  8. "SIDN implements Whois changes from 12 January 2010". SIDN. 1 January 2010. Archived from the original on 29 January 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
  9. Nominet. "Nominet WHOIS Opt Out".
  10. "The Privacy Conundrum in Domain Registration". Act Now Domains. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
  11. "Anger and fear as domain firm slowly implodes". Computer Business Review. February 21, 2007. Retrieved December 11, 2013.

External links

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