Save Domain Privacy

[wraith808]

I didn't even know about this until today when Hover e-mailed me.

https://www.savedomainprivacy.org/

What is WHOIS and how does it impact me?

How do you feel about your personal contact information being available on the Internet? If you have ever registered a domain name to create a blog or launch a business, your personal information (including name, telephone number, email, and postal address) is already published in a database called “WHOIS”.

WHOIS is an old system, dating back to the dawn of the Internet, to allow systems administrators from universities and government offices to contact each other.  Now that nearly everyone is online, WHOIS contains contact information for small businesses, churches, individuals, even minor children.  Anyone – law enforcement, businesses, individuals, even spammers– has free access to the data in WHOIS. With so much sensitive information publicly available, governments, civic groups, and privacy advocates are starting to tackle WHOIS, who has access, how they use the data, and what it all means for online privacy.

While they wrestle with these issues of privacy, there are steps you can take right now to protect your personal information online.  Privacy Services (sometimes called “Proxy Services”) post their own contact information in WHOIS in place of yours.

A recent study indicates that up to 20% of domains on the Internet trust these services to guard their information.

What is ICANN?

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the international governing body for the Domain Name System (DNS), and creates the rules for domain names that can be used to create new websites.  They also manage the information collected in the WHOIS database.

https://www.savedomainprivacy.org/sign-the-petition/

What’s Changing?

Everything!

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is working on a program that would create new restrictions on the companies offering WHOIS privacy services, or “Providers.”  Under the proposed new rules, Providers would be required to monitor your use of domain names and websites.  Providers could be forced to terminate your privacy service and be required to publish your contact data in WHOIS.  Likewise, Providers could be required to give your private contact details to anyone complaining that your website violates their trademark or copyright.  None of these scenarios would require a court order, search warrant, or due process of any kind.
It’s important to emphasize that Providers do not want criminals to abuse these services to hide their online activities from law enforcement. But some of the proposed changes would treat all users equally, regardless of their intent. For millions of legitimate users, these services are no more suspicious than getting an unlisted telephone number.

The site has some very useful and enlightening information.  And this is one of those petitions that I think that anyone should be able to get behind.  I didn't know how draconian they were until once I moved and wasn't using privacy, and they terminated my domains with no notification nor due process because it wasn't the same.  Now, with the crazies coming out and pursuing people for things they post, privacy is more of an issue than ever before, and this was one of the reasons I switched to Hover as they provide this service for free.

It's one of the few times that I immediately signed a petition after reading the information on the site.  Especially because this has not been advertised everywhere like net neutrality and such.

Take Action!

[MilesAhead]

I noticed this change too when I just registered a new domain.  I didn't shell out the extra bucks for the fake WHOIS info this time around.  Not only that but if you registered a company and you are the registered manager such as for an LLC, the stuff is coming up in web search anyway.  Anyone knows the name of the LLC then very likely the search engine is going to spit out your street address and phone number.

Yet another reason I stopped shelling out for company names just so I could shell out more to file annual reports.  I suppose if you have a company making real money you have to.  But people don't even have to go to the government web site to search out the LLC manager's contact info.  It just comes up.

Time to move to a gated community or dig a moat around the house. 

[wraith808]

I noticed this change too when I just registered a new domain.  I didn't shell out the extra bucks for the fake WHOIS info this time around.  Not only that but if you registered a company and you are the registered manager such as for an LLC, the stuff is coming up in web search anyway.  Anyone knows the name of the LLC then very likely the search engine is going to spit out your street address and phone number.

Yet another reason I stopped shelling out for company names just so I could shell out more to file annual reports.  I suppose if you have a company making real money you have to.  But people don't even have to go to the government web site to search out the LLC manager's contact info.  It just comes up.

Time to move to a gated community or dig a moat around the house. 

No, not if it's done correctly.

In the WHOIS and web searches, my address does not come up, and neither does my name.  The privacy concern is the one that comes up.  The only way it is even associated is if you did not do so at the time of registration it hit the internet, so is saved if you know how to look for it, or if you, as you said, registered as a company, which is not my concern.


It works for my use.

[MilesAhead]

In the WHOIS and web searches, my address does not come up, and neither does my name.  The privacy concern is the one that comes up.  The only way it is even associated is if you did not do so at the time of registration it hit the internet, so is saved if you know how to look for it, or if you, as you said, registered as a company, which is not my concern.

I understand. But I suggest searching with the regular search engines if there are any company identifiers on your site.  I guess the guys at ICCAN may be too lazy to use more than a whois search.  But once the state and name of your LLC are out there it is a matter of public record if anyone wants to take the time to look for it, the contact info of the manager/agent.  For a few dollars it may be worth it I suppose.

[wraith808]

In the WHOIS and web searches, my address does not come up, and neither does my name.  The privacy concern is the one that comes up.  The only way it is even associated is if you did not do so at the time of registration it hit the internet, so is saved if you know how to look for it, or if you, as you said, registered as a company, which is not my concern.

I understand. But I suggest searching with the regular search engines if there are any company identifiers on your site.  I guess the guys at ICCAN may be too lazy to use more than a whois search.  But once the state and name of your LLC are out there it is a matter of public record if anyone wants to take the time to look for it, the contact info of the manager/agent.  For a few dollars it may be worth it I suppose.

There are not company identifiers.  It's not a company.  It's just personal sites that I've registered.

[MilesAhead]

There are not company identifiers.  It's not a company.  It's just personal sites that I've registered.

In that case I would agree with you.  Especially after having my free domain yanked without consulting me.  It is really a paranoid world these days.  If you subject your code to 57 virus scanners and get 2 red flags and 55 green ones, nobody says "you got 55 green flags out of 57."  They say "you got 2 red flags."  It's retahded as we used to say in Boston. 

[SeraphimLabs]

They haven't yet made it against policy to use a PO Box as your contact info.

And the phone number is allowed to be a crappy prepaid phone that is never actually used- it just has to actually ring and be answered after a couple of attempts.

As usual the only people to lose out to policies like these are the masses. The savvy can still evade them as easily as they please.

I've been rather annoyed lately with the ICANN policy changes, and the general attitude of 'we must regulate and make a profit from everything that exists on the internet  and how dare you try to do otherwise'


namecoin is looking rather attractive right now as an alternative technology to the existing ICANN regulated DNS infrastructure.

I was actually thinking about what it would take to create a namecoin-like decentralized SSL certificate system, along the lines of your sitename and the public fingerprint of your site's SSL certificate are published in a blockchain so that anyone at any time can check to see if they have the correct certificate for the site in question. This would eliminate the need for a central authority for SSL certificates much the same way Namecoin eliminates the need for a central authority to serve DNS.

[wraith808]

I formerly used a PO box, but I was paying for a PO box just for this.  Then I used privacy, but GoDaddy are greedy.  So now I use Tucows, and they give it for free.  And as far as the pre-paid, you still have to top it up, or they'll cut it off.

[SeraphimLabs]

I formerly used a PO box, but I was paying for a PO box just for this.  Then I used privacy, but GoDaddy are greedy.  So now I use Tucows, and they give it for free.  And as far as the pre-paid, you still have to top it up, or they'll cut it off.

PO Box costs me $50 per year, I use it as my main mailbox anyway since I don't trust my neighbors to not snoop.

The prepaid phone I have has two expirations. The first is based on minutes used- it counts down till its gone. It also keeps track of service days remaining, again counting down till its gone.

And its all too easy for one of these phones to end up with like 300 minutes and several years of service time on it, making it ideal for a low cost point of contact to comply with ICANN regulations.

My domains are registered with dyn, and they want like $20 a year on top of the registration for the privacy service. Multiplied by the list of domains I have.

Using the PO box and prepaid phone instead, my info is compliant with ICANN regulations, but at the same time I am not inviting unwanted guests or getting a lot of telemarketters like I would be with a normal phone line and mailbox arrangement.

[wraith808]

Sounds like a good setup.  But just having Hover do all of that for me for free is really convenient

[Stoic Joker]

+1 for Hover (formerly Tucows) I've been with them for well over a decade and never had a problem.

As far as the whois privacy thing goes, I think it depends on what problem you're trying to solve. While the whois privacy services do "protect" you from random curious strangers, who could just as well use a phone book. It does absolutely nothing against the truly dangerous agencies that exist solely for the purpose of being harmfully invasive.

[rgdot]

Another alternative in case anyone needs it is namecheap $10.69 for .com and privacy is free for first year and I believe $2.88 years after. If I am not mistaken Hover registration is $12.99 (with included privacy) so prices are pretty even.

[wraith808]

Hover varies.  I pay about $8 for some of mine, not on sale.  Other ones (.cc for some strange reason) are higher.