Monday, March 25, 2024

What Is Domain Privacy Protection And Do I Need It

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Is Godaddy full domain privacy protection worth it? Are you considering buying the Godaddy domain privacy protection, but not sure if its really worth it or not? Do you wonder if domain privacy is necessary when creating a site? If you are about to buy a new domain to build a website, this question is definitely one you must answer BEFORE checking out. To find the answer, keep reading this Godaddy Domain Privacy Protection Review to see what you must consider BEFORE buying a domain!

A Couple Of Reasons Why You May Not Choose To Protect Your Domain Name

At this point, domain privacy protection probably seems like a no-brainer, so why is it that so many domain owners do not automatically turn it on? Well aside from the lack of education or potential costs associated depending on your registrar, protecting your domain also means less transparency. Which also means that your potential customers, business partners or people who wish to buy your domain name will have a harder time getting in contact with you.

Having your information out there shows your customers or potential business partners your contact info, in case they decide to dig deeper and head over to WHOIS to find it. A good workaround here is to ensure that your contact information is always displayed on your website , including at the footer of your pages and in a Contact Us page. Alternatively, if you have your domain name registered at NameSilo, you can control whether you want emails sent to the anonymized address forwarded to you.

Of course, in most cases, the benefits of domain name privacy will outweigh the transparency issue. But if youre trying to decide whether protecting your domain is worth it, then you should definitely take both arguments into consideration and solve for the potential limitations as much as possible.

Stop Unwanted Sales Calls

As is the case with emails, with your phone number available for everyone to see, companies and marketers alike will be quick to use it and try to sell something to you. Ultimately, what you will end up with is your phone constantly ringing, and you trying to explain why you dont want to buy a new set of cooking pots.

With domain privacy protection in place, however, your data will be hidden from unwanted solicitors and you will be able to avoid receiving annoying sales calls day and night. Plus, you wont have to worry about prank calls or complete strangers using your phone number anytime they see fit.

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How Private Is Your Information In Whois

Since ICANN requires contact information be provided for every registered domain, anyone can access WHOIS to check the status of a domain and get the contact information provided in the database.

With private registration, there isnt a 100% guarantee of privacy because registrars have to follow the law and may be required to release the information under specific circumstances. Your personal information will, however, be hidden from general searches.

Its important to note that there are exceptions to the rules for certain domain extensions. The General Data Protection Regulation also requires masking entities in the EU. Here are some exempted domain extensions:

  • .us Owners of a domain with the .us extension do not have the option to make their information private.
  • .ca Canadian law automatically protects those using this extension, meaning domain registrants are not required to have their contact details publicized. This rule only applies to individuals, not corporations.

Choose a registrar that protects your identity

The fact that information in the WHOIS database is readily available to the public raises some valid concerns about protecting your privacy.

One of the best ways to protect your information is to register your domain through a registrar that offers the option to do so privately. This means the registrar will provide their name and information as the contact information that appears in the WHOIS database.

Avoid Getting Hacked/identity Theft

What is Domain Privacy?

Image Source: Pexels.com

As weve already mentioned, the main goal of getting domain protection is to avoid just about anyone having access to the domain contact information youd rather keep to yourself. After all, how comfortable are you knowing that random strangers might have your phone number and could call you anytime they want?

In addition to being plain uncomfortable with your information out there, skipping out on domain privacy carries another massive risk with itgetting hacked and having your identity stolen. Hackers often try to target public WHOIS information to reverse socially engineer access to a registrants account or they will target the registrant with phishing attacks pretending to be the registrar.

And if youve thought about just providing fake information, we hate to inform you that ICANN requires the contact info on a domain name to be legitimate, meaning that theres really no way around it. If you enter fake information, you could lose your domain name if you miss the yearly WHOIS confirmation emails that registrars are required to send, as that will constitute a violation of terms and conditions.

In case domain protection doesnt go far enough for you, there are also plenty of ways you could make your website more secure.

Also Check: Where Do I Find My Domain Name

Domain Privacy Protection Means Less Spam

How many times a day do you get phone calls from unidentified numbers? How about emails selling products youd never dream of buying at allmuch less from a cold email? Spam is an unfortunate part of life.

Its bad enough without putting your email address and phone number out there where anyone can find it. Listing your contact information in the WHOIS database basically guarantees that youll see an uptick in spam calls and emails. It makes you an easy target.

And while there are certainly worse things in the world than spam, who wants to spend their time deleting spam emails or fielding robo-calls? Domain privacy protection may not keep you from dealing with any spam, but it means getting a lot less of it.

Reduce The Number Of Spam Emails

Image Source: Pexels.com

Over the years, weve got so used to receiving spam emails that its become easy to ignore them once they find their way into our inboxes. Still, with your email address at everyones disposal, youll probably be facing an influx of spam emails that may not get caught by all your spam filters.

Email is generally the easiest way to reach someone nowadays, and companies who want to promote or sell something know that. With your contact information publicly available, they will be quick to use it to their advantage and spam you with their offers. With domain protection in place, your public contact email will remain hidden, and you can control if you want the e-mails delivered to your inbox.

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Whois Domain Privacy Availability For Bluehost Domain Extensions

Not all Domain Extensions offered by Bluehost are allowed to have a private WHOIS record as each of the Registry sets its own rules and regulations regarding this. Generally, most of the ccTLDs offered by Bluehost do not allow the protection of WHOIS records by making use of their Domain Privacy Protection tool. In , the NTIA stated that the personal information of all the owners of the .us Domains must be made public and hence they wont be allowed to have the option of keeping their personal data as private.

What Is Domain Ownership Protection

What is Domain Name Privacy and Should you get it?

Most of the time domain protection focuses on two main goals: hiding your contact information for privacys sake, and protecting you from threats of domain theft.

While many protections are in place to prevent domain hijacking, there are situations where if an account is hacked and the domain owner hasnt set up proper protection, there could be issues. While there are many layers of protection in place to help prevent this, it can happen in some circumstances.

The idea behind domain ownership protection is to add even more layers to make this extremely unlikely whether loss happens from negligence or from a bad actor.

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You Might Get Unwanted Fake Lawsuits

While this one is very unlikely to happen, I thought I would include it as this has personally happened to me.

In some instances, website owners will receive fake lawsuit claims stating that they used a copyrighted image on their website.

However, if you know that you havent, then you may be a target from these generic emails that are used to scare website owners to pay a small fine to avoid going to court.

What Is Domain Name Privacy Protection

Domain privacy protection, sometimes called WHOIS protection, is an add-on service with domain name registration that allows you to keep your name and contact information private.

Every time someone registers a domain name, the domain registrar you go through is required to provide details about who the new website owner is to the ICANN WHOIS directory. That ensures if a website does anything against the law, theres a way to track down the website owner.

But it means that every person who owns a website faces the possibility of exposing important personal information to the whole wide web, including your physical address, phone number, and email address.

For anyone who doesnt feel comfortable with that, domain privacy protection provides the option to have your registrar submit their contact information in place of yours. It keeps you on the right side of ICANNs requirements, without exposing your personal information to the world.

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What Is Whois And What Does It Do

WHOIS is the public online listing of every registered domain name in the world. By searching WHOIS, you can find out who owns any domain.

Domain name ownership and registration is regulated by The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers . You can search WHOIS by visiting the ICANNs WHOIS Lookup.

When a new domain is registered, a new record is created in WHOIS. Each record contains all of the contact information for the company or person who registered that specific domain.

These records include details for the registrant and the registrar as well as important dates, like the creation date and expiry date of the record, and nameservers. The record also shows contact information for administrative and technical needs should that be someone different than the registrant.

Below youll see the result from searching Web.com in WHOIS. Note that our contact information is protected because we used a registrar that offers private registration.

While WHOIS may seem like a simple database, the data it houses is extremely valuable.

First off, the WHOIS database helps reinforce the stability and security of the internet by making contact information available to network operators, internet service providers and incident response teams.

This information can help safeguard against fraud and make it easier to track down malicious spam or phishing scams. It can also support law enforcement combating cyber crimes and the abusive use of information.

Add To An Existing Domain

Purchase privacy protection if you register a website domain

If you remove privacy protection when you register a domain, dont worry, you can always change your mind and add it at a later date. However, if you have the option to apply privacy from the get-go, do so. If you dont apply privacy upfront, your information will be available to the public. There are tools available that allow people to find previously listed domain ownership data, transfer history, and historical sales records of a domain.

If you remove the protection that Namecheap offers, and your current domain is getting spammed, you should get domain privacy. Email and phone spam will be greatly reduced if you have privacy protection in place.

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How Does Protection Privacy Work

When you register a domain name, your personal details are saved in WHOIS. If you opt not to buy domain privacy protection, youre choosing to expose your personal information on the WHOIS directory, so anyone can see your contact details .

Upon purchasing the privacy protection service, you get multiple advantages, such as complete security over the web, privacy in the WHOIS directory, and more.

Gdpr And Domain Privacy

For European Union citizens, the personal information connected to your domain name is automatically protected by the General Data Protection Regulation .

ICANN also implemented the Temporary Specifications for gTLD Registration Data to adjust to the regulations of the GDPR. So even if your personal information is private, some data are still available to the public, such as:

  • Your Internet Protocol
  • Domains registration and expiration dates

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What Is The Whois Database

WHOIS is short for âWho is responsible for this domain nameâ and is an apt description of what the database contains. It lists registration data verified by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers for every registered domain name on the internet.

Domain name registration companies use the database to enable customers to see if their preferred domain has already been taken and contact the owner if they want a taken domain name.

Besides acting as a collection of all registered domain names, the WHOIS directory includes detailed information about the domain registrant like:

How To Buy And Apply Domain Privacy For Your Website

Is Bluehost Domain Privacy Protection Worth it? Do You Need It? (Review)

Before we wrap up, lets walk you through the quick process of buying and applying domain privacy. The whole domain purchasing process ties into this, so were also going to touch on that.

Note that were using Namecheap here because its a common registrar with free domain privacy options. However, you can extrapolate from our approach and apply it to your chosen registrar. Of course, if your registrar charges for domain privacy as a separate service, youll need to factor this into the overall cost.

Your first task is to find and add your domain name to your cart:

Youll then want to click through to the checkout screen, at which point youll see the option to add domain privacy to your order:

Youll notice that domain privacy is toggled as enabled as standard, and is also set to auto-renew.

Once youve done this, you can continue your purchase and complete the transaction. You can also use the Bulk Settings dropdown to apply domain privacy to multiple domains in your cart:

Thats all there is to purchasing and applying domain privacy. Most registrars toggle it on as standard, and theres little youll need to do other than go through the renewal process if you havent opted for auto-renewal.

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It Protects The Contact Details Of The Domain Registrant

The world has access to your domain registration information through the WHOIS database. So anyone can easily see your contact details, including hackers, scammers, and competitors.

If your website is hacked, your business will suffer, and customers data can get stolen as well. Youll lose the audiences trust and potential traffic. Plus, it may take some time to recover from reputational damage.

You will reduce the potential of experiencing the problems mentioned above if you use domain privacy protection.

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Domain Privacy Protection Conclusion

So is domain privacy protection worth it? I think you know the answer to this question by now and see the reason that you shouldnt checkout without having this feature added. If you really care about web security and protecting your business website and good name online, then this is an easy answer.

To date, I have purchased over 30 domains online so I know what works and what doesnt. I also know where to find great online deals and discounts on web hosting, domains and tools that you will need to save money for your business and excel online. If you want to know more, feel free to drop your comments below and I will be happy to provide additional in on tools. In the interim, you can checkout the resources page.

Now lets turn over to you. What type of website are you creating online? Will you buy domain privacy today to protect your website data online? You better get it!

Now that you understand what is domain privacy protection, I hope that you enjoyed this review today. If you have any questions about this post or creating websites and blogs online, feel free to drop a comment below..

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Privacy Protection Isnt Always An Option

Although Whois privacy service is available for almost all domains, some are unavailable due to registry restrictions.

Currently, this includes .ca, .ch, .cn, .co.in, .co.uk, .com.au, .com.es, .com.sg, .de, .es, .eu, .fr, .gg, .id, .in, .is, .law, .li, .me.uk, .net.au, .nl, .nom.es, .nu, .nyc, .org.es, .org.au, .org.uk, .paris, .sg, .to, .uk, .us, .vote, .voto, and .xn--3ds443g domains.

Privacy protection may already be in place for certain TLDs, or restrictions may be in place for specific geographic locations.

Take .us, for example. In 2005 the National Telecommunications and Information Administration requested that all registrants must make their contact information public. This was to help make sure that .us registrants followed the requirements, such as that they must be a US citizen or resident, when registering their domain.

How Much Does Whois Protection Cost

Domain Privacy Protection

You can get domain privacy protection while registering a new domain name with your domain registrar . They tend to offer it as an extra feature, usually priced between $2 and $20 a year. Thats a reasonable cost when you think about the extent of the risk it mitigates!

But do you really need domain privacy protection? Lets look at the reasons why it makes sense to get it.

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