How to register a domain name without revealing personal information?

**pzqwpo** · #1 (**permalink**) 12-05-2009, 07:12

For an example, a person wants to create a website about politics. And the discussions on the site might be somewhat radical, which can cause trouble to the founder if their information is revealed.
How can that person own a domain name without revealing personal information?

**akp982** · #2 (**permalink**) 12-05-2009, 08:21

Have a look at websutes like

domainregister.com/private-registration.html

privatedomainregistration.co.uk

**MattBarthorp** · #3 (**permalink**) 12-05-2009, 09:05

In order to keep your identity private, you can choose the service of ID protection offered at a nominal additional charge. It would restrict your details to be displayed over the Internet.

**Ryan** · #4 (**permalink**) 12-05-2009, 16:11

You may want to protect your personal information, such as your name, your address, your email address, telephone number as this information is available freely to anyone checking the whois database registry of domains, by purchasing domain id protection, the domain information about you is kept private.

**Merrick** · #5 (**permalink**) 13-05-2009, 02:33

Referring to the below link might help you to get the detailed information about the WhoIs information? How it can be protected?
What is Whois Information? | UK Web Hosting | Linux Windows Server Tutorials | PHP MySQL Service
Hope that helps

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattBarthorp

Inorder to keep your identity private, you can choose the service of ID protection offered at a nominal additional charge. It would restrict your details to be displayed over the Internet.

You can refer the following link from eUKhost : eukhost.com/whmcs/cart.php?a=confdomains

Could you please re-check the link that you have given, Matt?

**jennifer** · #6 (**permalink**) 13-05-2009, 06:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merrick

Could you please re-check the link that you have given, Matt?

Basically that happens to be browser based, so it shows you an empty cart.
MattBarthorp was referring to the "ID Protection" option on the Domains Configuration page while registering a domain name.

**GalaxyMan** · #7 (**permalink**) 06-06-2009, 16:59

Yeah it's definitely possible to protect your ID however, usually it costs a bit extra. Almost every domain registrar offers this sort of protection but generally speaking, they use a different name for it so you'll have to look around on their site to find it or ask their support team.

**bytemaster** · #8 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 08:11

Isn't it illlegal to hide your details on who-is? Or is that for people registering on behalf of a company?

**Ryan** · #9 (**permalink**) 08-06-2009, 13:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by bytemaster

Isn't it illlegal to hide your details on who-is? Or is that for people registering on behalf of a company?

Hiding your contact details in the domain whois using Domain ID protect isn't illegal. Many registrars offer addon services such as 'Whois Privacy Protect' and 'Domain ID protect' along with domain registrations.

Bryan · #10 (**permalink**) 25-06-2009, 22:13

The feature of " Whois Privacy Protect " or " Domain ID Protect " came into existence to avoid the unwanted emails or messages from spammers. Earlier, as the information of the domain owner could be revealed easily by the domain whois registry database, spammers could collect the information and send out emails. Even the marketing strategy had a faster growth by this information and the email account was filled out with junk mails.

The owners of the organization were fed up with these emails. As the information supplied at the time of registration were of the company owner, spammers collected the personal information and tried to contact them directly through emails, phones or even at work place.

Whois Privacy Protect or Domain ID Protect shields your Private Information that is do you wish to have for the domain as the contact information in the Whois Database. It insures that your private contact information is not exposed. It is held in confidentiality and protected by the Domain Privacy Protection Service. Their contact information is displayed to provide you with the highest level of protection against spammers and identity theft.

You retain full legal ownership and control over your domain name. You can sell, renew, transfer and change settings to your domain name just the same as before. Your domain control panel provides you real-time access to easily manage your domain name.

Again, if we think vice-verse the thefts & spammers take more advantages of such features than a genuine owner of the domain who just wants to expand his business globally.

* ID Protect is not available for .US names

EUKHOST provides the feature of Whois Privacy Protect or Domain ID Protect ..!

**harry** · #11 (**permalink**) 28-06-2009, 20:43

Thanks Bryan for detailed explanation, really appreciated

Well, there are many webhosting service provider who try to attract webmasters by offering FREE Domain ID protection feature as a special deal with their hosting packages !!! but don’t forget to go through their TOS and small font sized special notes at the bottom of webpages as nothing comes for FREE

**cranzi** · #12 (**permalink**) 29-06-2009, 22:32

Does anyone know what the charge is? I am hearing different numbers all around, as well, is the charge different (not counting currency exchange rates) for all countries?

**KillerPanel** · #13 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 01:03

OK, but what about search engines? Do they hiccup on your site if you keep your Whois private? I have heard that Google penalizes Page Ranking for those sites.

**Catherine** · #14 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 02:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by KillerPanel

OK, but what about search engines? Do they hiccup on your site if you keep your Whois private? I have heard that Google penalizes Page Ranking for those sites.

No, Google rankings do not have any kind of relation with ID protection and hence if you have ID protection for your domain, it won't affect your Google rankings

(as far as I know).

The reason for this is the fact that the primary motive of Google is to provide sources for information to the users looking for information

If your website is the source of information for particular topic, your website will get rankings in the Google search results even if you have ID protection for your domain

ID protection is just to hide your contact information on whois.

**KillerPanel** · #15 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 10:39

Lets take link farms as an example. It is proven that Google penalizes your Page Ranking if your site has many inbound link from sites that share the same C class IP address. Couple of people who are long enough in this business said that Google also looks at the Whois info and if it finds inbound links to your site from multiple sites that have the same Whois, it also considers this as link farming.

**Gordon** · #16 (**permalink**) 07-07-2009, 11:23

If Google penalizes you for Whois link farming, then it definitely sees the Whois. But what happens when there is no Whois? Maybe Google assumes you are hiding something and so they classify you as shady which maybe leads to Page Ranking penalizing. A lot of maybes here.

**jake123** · #17 (**permalink**) 20-09-2009, 09:42

I too have heard that private registration may be one of the 100+ factor Google considers in ranking a site, though it might get tallied as a professionalism factor, they understand that a legitimate businesses that operate out of a residence might want to not reveal details.

More importantly for link farm operators, bear in mind that Google is an ICCAN registrar and can penetrate the privacy screen, though I don't know if this is routinely done.

I have seen shady sites who's registration information is obviously bogus, registration services that accept paypal payments do all the verification through your contact email address, meaning should Mr Bogus loose the contact email, he may have no backup mechanism to verify ownership.

**kendalbigson** · #18 (**permalink**) 20-09-2009, 15:08

Some domain registrars offer free private domain registration. I think 1and1 might be one of them.

Kendal Bigson

**paul** · #19 (**permalink**) 22-09-2009, 14:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by kendalbigson

Some domain registrars offer free private domain registration. I think 1and1 might be one of them.

Kendal Bigson

But there is no privacy protections for the following domain names;

.US, .IN, .CO.IN, .EU, .CO.UK, .ASIA