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WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

namecheap.com

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Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#11

Post by tekstar »

chris_overseas wrote: post #8

Can someone explain in more detail why they aren't able why they aren't able to cover certain TLDs (including several falling under GDPR in the EU)? Their FAQ says: "Due to registry restrictions, WhoisGuard cannot be used with .asia, .ca, .cn, .uk, .co.uk, .de, .eu, .in, .id, .me, .uk, .nu, .li, .ch, .fr, .sg, .com.sg, .org.uk, .us, .es, .com.es, .nom.es, .org.es, .com.au, .net.au, .paris, .vote, .voto, .xn--3ds443g,…

Not sure about the others, but if you do a whois on a .ca domain you will see it already returns a proxy address (Canadian Internet Registration Authority). You have to provide a valid Canadian address to register a .ca, but they'll only give that information to law enforcement.

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#12

Post by stratosgear »

tcd wrote: post #6

> Because at Namecheap, we care about your privacy protection. Only when we can stop profiting from selling privacy services because of a new law that came into effect a few days ago. I'd have believed them if they did this 2 years ago once GDPR was announced. Already moved my domains from namecheap since they are not the cheapest and didn't offer free whois until now.

Mind to share what you choose to use?

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#13

Post by baby »

stratosgear wrote: post #12
tcd wrote: post #6

> Because at Namecheap, we care about your privacy protection. Only when we can stop profiting from selling privacy services because of a new law that came into effect a few days ago. I'd have believed them if they did this 2 years ago once GDPR was announced. Already moved my domains from namecheap since they are not the cheapest and didn't offer free whois until now.

Mind to share what you choose to use?

Ovh. They also always had this service for free.

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#14

Post by eli »

lexalizer wrote: post #7
stratosgear wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You bet it is! I was also emailed: At Namecheap, we care about your privacy and are now giving ALL our Namecheap customers FREE WhoisGuard for life, when they register a domain* with us. This important change supports our strong belief in privacy, security, freedom and the equal treatment for all internet users. Suddenly, they care about my privacy, whereas all the previous years they were soliciting subscriptions to…

Expect the domain renewal price to include this cost in the future.

It doesn't really cost much to provide. I think it was just an easy upsell.

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#15

Post by AshWills »

tekstar wrote: post #11
chris_overseas wrote: post #8

Can someone explain in more detail why they aren't able why they aren't able to cover certain TLDs (including several falling under GDPR in the EU)? Their FAQ says: "Due to registry restrictions, WhoisGuard cannot be used with .asia, .ca, .cn, .uk, .co.uk, .de, .eu, .in, .id, .me, .uk, .nu, .li, .ch, .fr, .sg, .com.sg, .org.uk, .us, .es, .com.es, .nom.es, .org.es, .com.au, .net.au, .paris, .vote, .voto, .xn--3ds443g,…

Not sure about the others, but if you do a whois on a .ca domain you will see it already returns a proxy address (Canadian Internet Registration Authority). You have to provide a valid Canadian address to register a .ca, but they'll only give that information to law enforcement.

This applies to .co.uk domains too.

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#16

Post by mdasen »

stratosgear wrote: post #12
tcd wrote: post #6

> Because at Namecheap, we care about your privacy protection. Only when we can stop profiting from selling privacy services because of a new law that came into effect a few days ago. I'd have believed them if they did this 2 years ago once GDPR was announced. Already moved my domains from namecheap since they are not the cheapest and didn't offer free whois until now.

Mind to share what you choose to use?

NameSilo is a couple dollars cheaper than Namecheap and include free privacy as well (https://www.namesilo.com/pricing.php).

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#19

Post by JumpCrisscross »

stratosgear wrote: post #5
_xgw wrote: post #2

Is this because of the new GDPR regulations?

You bet it is! I was also emailed: At Namecheap, we care about your privacy and are now giving ALL our Namecheap customers FREE WhoisGuard for life, when they register a domain* with us. This important change supports our strong belief in privacy, security, freedom and the equal treatment for all internet users. Suddenly, they care about my privacy, whereas all the previous years they were soliciting subscriptions to…

Per another comment [1], these free WhoisGuard services do not seem to apply to multiple European TLDs (e.g. .fr).

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17178559

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#20

Post by tcd »

tradesmanhelix wrote: post #17

I just renewed a domain with Namecheap and, based on the price they're now charging, pretty sure the cost of this “free” whois privacy protection is now just built into the cost of their products. Not impressed. Edit: spelling

Jan 23rd 2018: $10.87 for .com and $0.99 for whoisguard ($11.86 total)

29th May 2018: $10.98 (+0.11) for .com and 0.18 ICANN'T fee ($11.16 total).

So it's $0.71 cheaper without whoisguard. So that margin (increase in .com) probably covers the actual whoisguard cost, the $1 fee was pretty much pure profit.

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