Thread: Website registration and privacy

When you register a domain (for example on godaddy.com), you are required to enter your full name and address.
Is this information public?
If so, how do you get around this in order to protect your privacy from strangers? Do you have a PO Box set up to use as your address?

The information is public.

My server (bizland.com) always offers me the option of domain privacy for, I think, about $8-9 per year. I think of it like having an unlisted phone number. The domain then appears to be registered in the name of an agency. I'm guessing all registrars offer this service?

The whois database is publicly accessible, if you ever want to know who a domain is registered to. Whois Lookup - Domain Names Search, Registration, & Availability | Whois.net

Yes, this information is publicly available in the DNS registry unless you pay to have it withheld (not sure if all domain registration services offer that option). You can set up a PO box instead. I remember Shira having details on this and posting on a related Bhuz thread in the past...perhaps too far in the past to show up in search.

Originally Posted by yameyameyame

If so, how do you get around this in order to protect your privacy from strangers? Do you have a PO Box set up to use as your address?

As Lauren mentions, most registrars will charge extra to protect your information. DO IT. If the registrar you're looking at doesn't, go to one that does.

This is a much cheaper/easier/simpler answer than getting a PO Box (and, in some cases, a separate email AND phone number). And yes, not just spammers but flat-out scammers/con-artists do look at this information. The odds are low that it'll be used against you, but the cost is worth the safety, in my experience and opinion.

History Note: Yes, it's insane that this is necessary. It's a hold-over from the early (pre-WWW) days of the Internet, when there were no commercial entities allowed, and damned few people looking to scam other folks from the data online. When things changed, the Internet expanded so fast that no one had a chance to figure out how to protect this information before it simply became too much of a technical/logistical challenge to change it, and it was left to the registrars to do so.

I purchased my domain and private registration through godaddy. It was super easy. When someone searches the whois, my domain comes up as godaddy being the registrar. The privacy and safety is WELL worth the $9 a year.