Tag Archives: whois privacy

Wed 24th June 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
3,000 comments submitted about whois remoteness proposal - People upset about non-consensus proposal to forbid whois privacy on sites conducting commerce. About 3,000 people and groups have submitted comments to ICANN during its comment period on privacy and proxy services. An ICANN working group proposed a number of requirements on privacy and proxy services. The proposal that is drawing the most comments is just a minority proposal at this time: a prohibition on using privacy services for sites that conduct commerce. The proposed prohibition on using privacy ... read more ...
Thu 21st May 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain definitions: whois remoteness vs. whois proxy - What’s the difference between whois privacy and whois proxy? With talk in Washington and policy circles about whois privacy, I think it would be good to define both whois privacy and whois proxy, and discussed how the terms are usually used. Traditionally, whois privacy has referred to a service in which the owner of a domain name is listed in the public whois record contacts, but the privacy service’s contact details (phone, address, email et al) are listed instead of the owner’s. This makes ... read more ...
Fri 16th January 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
“Legitimate companies don’t censor their hit details” - Is using whois privacy or proxy services a red flag? I was reading a story this morning about problems at Bitcoin payment processor EgoPay. The author noted that the EgoPay.com website is devoid of contact information and that the domain name is protected by whois privacy. The author concludes that “Legitimate companies don’t hide their contact details.” I agree to an extent. A combination of not disclosing contact details on a site and using whois privacy ... read more ...
Thu 4th December 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Companies don’t wish we to use Whois privacy, though they use it themselves - Brands owners benefit from whois privacy, even though they’d prefer their adversaries not be able to use it. There’s a common myth in intellectual property circles that, if it weren’t for whois privacy and proxy services, there would be a lot less bad stuff on the internet. I can bust a hole right in the myth. But instead, I’d like to point out something these companies don’t often admit: they are some of the biggest users of whois privacy. I was reminded ... read more ...
Thu 25th April 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Network Solutions files domain remoteness obvious application - Domain name registrar Network Solutions wants to patent various aspects of a domain privacy service, and has filed a patent application for “Private Domain Name Registration” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The application is technically a continuation of an application the company filed in 2004 but later abandoned. The new application was filed May 25, 2012 and just published (pdf) today. But wait, doesn’t Go Daddy already have a patent on this? Sort ... read more ...
Tue 6th December 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Whois privacy. Even a Fortune 500 use it. - It’s hypocritical for large companies to lobby against whois privacy services when they use them as well. Why do so many large companies argue against whois privacy and whois proxy services when they use the same tools themselves? It’s a frequently asked question, one that Kevin Murphy asked again today: Sure, a lot of people hide their whois information for nefarious purposes. But for companies to label all whois privacy as “bad” when they do it themselves ... read more ...
Wed 8th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Registrars Defend Domain Name Whois Privacy - by Kevin Murphy Domain registrars are fighting off critics of Whois privacy on multiple fronts at the ICANN meeting in Cartagena, Colombia this week. In the latest example, registrars led by Tucows CEO Elliot Noss today savaged an ICANN draft advisory that would hold affiliated privacy services accountable for cybersquatting customers. In May, ICANN said that as far as it is concerned proxy/privacy services are liable for how customers use their domains, under the ... read more ...
Wed 29th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN May Test Whois Privacy and Proxy Services - How do whois privacy services respond to requests to reveal owner information? The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) has asked ICANN to consider the cost and feasibility of extended whois studies. ICANN has already undertaken studies to determine what percentage of whois records are accurate. The next study is to see how whois privacy and whois proxy services respond to requests to reveal the actual owner of domain names. The study would involve working ... read more ...
Tue 3rd August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Wikileaks Could Put More Pressure on Whois Privacy Services - Could WikiLeaks backlash bring renewed attention to whois privacy services? The backlash against WikiLeaks over its release of thousands of secret U.S. government documents about the war in Afghanistan is building. It’s never pretty when your web site is blamed for death. And although the public now knows who is behind WikiLeaks, I think the situation may place more attention on the use of whois privacy and proxy services. WikiLeaks.org was registered in 2006 using ... read more ...
Wed 28th April 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Providing Whois Privacy Isn’t Free - Running a whois privacy or proxy service costs money. In the recent uproar about Name.com introducing a fee for whois privacy, a number of people have said that such a service costs the provider essentially nothing. Without discussing the merits of Name.com’s new fee and how it communicated it, it’s worth pointing out that whois privacy does cost the registrar money. First, there’s the legal set up fee and structure of an entity to act at the proxy. (There ... read more ...
Fri 2nd October 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
15%-25% of Domain Names are Registered with Masked Whois - Study examines use of privacy and proxy services. A new report (pdf) released by ICANN yesterday says that 15%-25% of all registered domain names use some sort of service to mask whois information. The study found that the majority of people masking whois use a proxy service, which means an entity actually registers the domain on the domain “owner’s” behalf, and then leases it to that owner. Only 15% use privacy services, which mask some of the whois information ... read more ...