I'm always very sensitive about revealing my personal information on the net. My name doesn't appear anywhere that I know of. I'm registering a new .com domain name to do some ecommerce. I live in China. My business will be exporting items to the US and Europe.

I know there are registrars that will use their information instead of my own.

1) What will customers think when they whois me and get proxy info instead of my real info?

2) If I do put my real info, should I put my Chinese address for "extra authenticity", or my permanent home address (Mom's house)?

3) Legally, the Registrant owns the domain name. If this is not in my name, I don't legally own the domain. It is owned by the proxy service and they can legally do whatever the heck they want with it...is this right?

1) It depends. If you ask me, it is better when customer can see company information, instead of WhoisGuard Service one.

2) I would suggest putting your business address

3) WhoisGuard is used to protect your information, but you are still the owner of the domain name.

Originally posted by drencrom
1) What will customers think when they whois me and get proxy info instead of my real info?

Some might think you're trying to hide something, others might
understand, who knows?

Originally posted by drencrom
2) If I do put my real info, should I put my Chinese address for "extra authenticity", or my permanent home address (Mom's house)?

Just input an address where you'll receive your renewal paper
notices. That's one main reason why the registrar needs it.

Originally posted by drencrom
3) Legally, the Registrant owns the domain name. If this is not in my name, I don't legally own the domain. It is owned by the proxy service and they can legally do whatever the heck they want with it...is this right?

Ideally it should hide at least your street address, phone number,
and email address yet retain the registrant name. If it does hide
everything, it's only for cosmetic purposes and they'll keep the
actual WHOIS info internal, meaning the registrant is still you.

i dont trust sites that use proxy services i feel they are always hiding something.

for business you can always use business address and an email forwaded to /dev/null who cares?

Wen you use services such as domains by proxy or whois guard, the legal owner of the domain is the service provider. You merely own the domain through a contractual agreement with the service provider.

I agree with Bashar, I don't really trust sites with proxy information. However, if they publicly display their contact information on their website, I might think otherwise.

If you are trying to use a proxy service to disguise the fact that you are in China, that would probably be a good idea. However, since you are exporting goods from China, i don't think there is anything to hide in that sense.

There is no use of protecting one's business address...... or maybe you doing it as a Sole ProprietorShip drencom?

Also you should ask yourself: is your privacy more important than making some potential customers "identifying" you?

Originally posted by Bashar
i dont trust sites that use proxy services i feel they are always hiding something.

for business you can always use business address and an email forwaded to /dev/null who cares?

Well, in this case, I'm based in China, so I'm wondering if people will find *that* more doubtful than a proxy name. Unfortunately, there's a heck of a lot of bad internet stuff that comes out of China.

I'm a one-man operation, the business will be out of my home.

I think from a customer standpoint, seeing the business address in the whois, and seeing it match contact information on your webpage would inspire more confidence than seeing evidence of concealment.

I use Whoisguard and Domainsbyproxy to avoid the spam, but my domains are not a business.

If you're doing business you need to publish a postal address where people can contact you. This may not necessarily be the law everywhere in the world (it is the law here in the UK), but people aren't going to want to do business with someone who is hiding behind a proxy registration, or who doesn't publish full contact information on their web site.

The address you publish doesn't have to be your home address (I can understand why you may want to keep that private), but if you want to run a business you should definitely publish some kind of postal address where you can be reached.

what i simply do to eliminate spam/calls/junkmail is to get a PO Box, voicemail box and a free email address which i don't bother checking to be listed on the whois contact.

Originally posted by 2fangs
what i simply do to eliminate spam/calls/junkmail is to get a PO Box, voicemail box and a free email address which i don't bother checking to be listed on the whois contact.

The "don't bother checking" bit is not such a good idea - you could miss out on important messages regarding your domain.

Better to use a Sneakemail address (with greylisting enabled) and change it the moment the first spam arrives. A bit more hassle but at least you won't lose any important mail.