Why Domain Name Privacy is Important?

[Obosh]

Brothers,

While registering domain name I found some registrars offer Domain Privacy. And I understood it will hide my Whois information.
But I don’t understand why do I need to hide my Domain Whois info?
Or is there any other advantage or disadvantage of hiding Domain Whois?

Sorry if I asked a dumb question here.

Regards.

 

[AlienAlien is verified member.]

Brothers,

While registering domain name I found some registrars offer Domain Privacy. And I understood it will hide my Whois information.
But I don’t understand why do I need to hide my Domain Whois info?
Or is there any other advantage or disadvantage of hiding Domain Whois?

Sorry if I asked a dumb question here.

Regards.

Your personal preferences I guess? Sometimes WHOIS info is cached and stored too, so you might get spammed?

Some people also prefer to hide their details depending on the subject of any developed sites on the domain in question (e.g. if it's controversial).

Advantages to leaving it - you can put a message in the WHOIS, e.g. "This domain is for sale" and potential purchasers can find you. WHOIS info might also promote customer confidence if it clearly shows all relevant info on a trading domain/web site.

I'm sure there's other pros and cons. What do you think?

 

[Borris]

I used to think WHOIS privacy was only a money making scam and then I listened to the below podcast and it is about an interesting identity theft example that all starts from a whois query.

http://www.social-engineer.org/episode-008-the-social-engineering-zero-day-revealed/

Personally I don’t always think you need to use a privacy service but you should always be conscious of what information is contained in the WHOIS.

Now that seems common sense but you would be surprised how many people have their home address and home phone number in the WHOIS and are not aware that its there.

WHOIS info might also promote customer confidence if it clearly shows all relevant info on a trading domain/web site.

I completely agree with Alien if it is a business site and the WHOIS is protected by a privacy service it certainly gives me second thoughts whether it is kosher. All ltd companies have their information publically held at company’s house so if you’re an LTD it kind of makes sense to use the same registered address.

Some domainers use a PO box or a mailbox company that way you only need to pay for the mailbox service and then add that address to the WHOIS of all your domains. Considering most privacy services cost around a £5 per domain per year, you don’t have to own many domains for a yearly mailbox service makes sense if that’s what you want?