I was just wondering if there are any issues with changing the "whois" information. Specifically, the Administrator Contact, Billing Contact, and Technical Contact tends to give out your personal information/mailing address. Are there legal issues in removing your address and telephone number?

I am very interested in this question too.

I have registered two domains but am not happy about using them because of the whois.

It's not that I am doing anything illegal or running a porn site or anything, its just having some much personal available.

If I had known better I would have used a pseudonym.

Can I create a name and transfer ownership of the domains to this name?

Have a read of this (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44115) thread.


Lats...

Lats,

I read the whole thread, but there doesn't seem to be any concensus on this issue. Some say to just remove the info and leave the email address intact to receive important info such as renewal notices.

But then further down, there are some that say you can lose the domain name due to leaving info out (even if you are not falsifying (spelling??) you still need to update and provide accurate info).

Now I'm :confused:

You do not need to put your home address, or any information on there. The only things you need are your email address, and your FULL name. For the rest of the stuff, just put "Not Shown" or "N/A" or "Confidential". The only time I would recommend putting full contact information is if the domain name means alot to you, or if it's worth alot, but most of the time, if your domain is registered through a place like NetworkSolutions, they are VERY strict when it comes to domain transfers / claims to ownership. Don't worry about it.

It's not illegal to omit or put false information, but it's usually against the registrar's policies, so you risk losing the domain name, though I haven't heard of anyone actually losing a domain name for that reason.

By not using complete and accurate information you are in breach of your contract with the registrar. Based on the registrars agreements with ICANN your domain name is subject to cancellation.

Domain cancellations have been done before and is happening much more frequently by all registrars when they are alerted to inaccurate information.

You will see all registrars become very strict about this process as ICANN and the US govt. take a closer look at the whois mess we currently have.

It is my understanding that there is a congressional comittee currently reviewing the lack of accurate whois information.

I guess its still a toss up as to whether or not to put "Confidential" or "Not Shown" or just put accurate info.....seems like there's different opinions on this.