Hi all,

I need a domain name, but I do not want any of my personal info in WHOIS or anywhere else. So far my understanding is that the name of PAYEE (from the credit card) will go to the public record.

Is there a way around it?

There are companies like http://www.zacaw.com/wdomainpg.htm or http://hostexp.com/domainnames.htm who wold make statements like "Whois Privacy - For your benefit, HostEXP keeps contact information private
from Whois databases" - can they be trusted?

The easiest way is to register at a domain registrar that lets you change all your data in the domain record, and then after your domain is registered, change the data to whatever you want it to be.

Just make sure you use a real email address as the admin contact so that you don't miss renewal or transfer messages. The admin contact is the contact that is in control of the domain.

-t

Which brings up the next logical question... two questions, actually:

1. What are these registrars
and
2. According to people from registrars (I wrote to couple of them) the credit card info will be used as "payee name", and I don't think I will be able to edit credit card info, not to nickname credit card...

It can be changed easily after you register.

Originally posted by Swift
It can be changed easily after you register.

He's right. For registrar: I suggest http://gkg.net. You can change everything.

Dotster (http://www.dotster.com) added a new feature (pretty sure) thats a new option throughout all of the registrars (or at least I think so) that allows you to totally remove your personal information from the public WHOIS.

When did the rules governing domain registration change? They had stipulated that domain registration information was to be truthful and accurate.

Originally posted by NyteOwl
When did the rules governing domain registration change? They had stipulated that domain registration information was to be truthful and accurate. Is it untruthful if you leave all or some of your details out? Entering in fake data might be against the rules, but leaving a field blank seems to be a simple desire for privacy. Is this against the law? Good question?

I register all my new domains at http://www.needa.com for several reasons:

- They're inexpensive at $8.95 each
- The company is incredibly reliable
- Your registration info is completely distinct from your payment info

Steve

Originally posted by Abu Mami
Is this against the law? It's not against the law, but it is a violation of the policies of your registration agreement. For every ICANN-regulated TLD the registrars are required to get "accurate and reliable" contact information from SLD holders ("second level domain" holders -- that is, you) including full name, postal address, email address and phone number. So when you register a domain name and check that box saying that you've read the terms you've agreed to provide complete information.

Under ICANN's accreditation agreement with those registrars: "An SLD holder's willful provision of inaccurate or unreliable information, its willful failure promptly to update information provided to Registrar, or its failure to respond for over fifteen calendar days to inquiries by Registrar concerning the accuracy of contact details associated with the SLD holder's registration shall constitute a material breach of the SLD holder-registrar contract and be a basis for cancellation of the SLD registration."

So, in theory at least, if your contact information is wrong or missing you could lose your domain name. One clear risk would be in you get into a domain name dispute. I've read UDRP arbitrator's decisions in which the fact that inaccurate registration information was provided was cited as evidence of "bad faith" registration.

beware when you are registering a domain name in another name (domain owner - a company or a person) and after when you are going to change it you may find out, that it will cost you some extra and some paperwork must be filled. It depends what domain name registrar you are using ;)

Originally posted by scslawin
I register all my new domains at http://www.needa.com for several reasons:

- They're inexpensive at $8.95 each
- The company is incredibly reliable
- Your registration info is completely distinct from your payment info

Steve

thank you for sharing that. now i have an alternate to godaddy

There is no way that we can hide the information from the Whois, that is a
public record and is required to be that way by the registry. No other
accredited registrar should allow you to provide false information.
Providing false information on a whois list will subject you to discontinuing
of your service at any time. If you have any other questions please feel
free to let me know.

I would not get too hung up on the "whois police" catching up to you and causing you to lose your domain because you have left out some registration information.

The whois database is full of so much junk today it's not even funny. Much of this junk data comes from the large registrars themselves, and ICANN does nothing to police these guys even when the obviously fake/misleading data is brought to their attention.

I would by much more worried about losing the domain because you do not keep your admin contact information accurate and eventually be unable to convince anyone that you actually own the domain...

-t

Originally posted by scslawin
I register all my new domains at http://www.needa.com for several reasons:

- They're inexpensive at $8.95 each
- The company is incredibly reliable
- Your registration info is completely distinct from your payment info

Steve

They're not ICANN accredited, and they offer unlimited disk space and bandwidth hosting.

Originally posted by ToastyX
They're not ICANN accredited, and they offer unlimited disk space and bandwidth hosting.

Whether they offer unlimited space and transfer isn't relevant to me. What's important is PERFORMANCE. I can count the number of problems I've had with my service there on less than one hand over the past 3-4 years.

They're plugged into InterNAP, never oversell, and have an actual staff and real offices.

They've been doing business since 1996 and I've had one site or another there for years and years. Prior to that I bounced around from hosting company to hosting company. Any serious work I do, anything important, goes straight to needa.com. And I can never recall ANY unplanned downtime with them.

Take it for what it's worth, but there is only one hosting company that I can recommend without hesitation, and this is it.

Steve

This is one topic I know a lot about. Yes, if you buy a domain name there is no way around putting your info out on the web unless you lie. I was watching The Screen Savers one day (a tv show) and I found out about Godaddy.com. They provide prolly the cheapest registration out there at about 8$. Another great thing about them is they have a method to protect your info from spammers. They are way better than Dotster... though Dotster is still a great company.