Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

namecheap.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 146 posts

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#91

Post by StavrosK »

drwl wrote: post #80
StavrosK wrote: post #43

Ugh, leave it to Namecheap to fuck up extremely simple UX. Instead of just giving me a toggle in the domain settings, I have to add WhoisGuard to my cart, once per domain (for the tens of domains I own), then go and select "10 years" in the purchasing screen (and wait for the entire page to reload) once for each domain, and then go through the entire checkout process to pay $0. Why not just let me click a single butt…

Have you given Google's name service a try? Regardless of all the privacy stuff and etc going on in HN, their product is really nice.

That's interesting, I'll take a look, although I don't like using Google services. Thanks for the suggestion, I wasn't even aware that they had a domain registration product.

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#92

Post by strictnein »

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.

The GDPR wouldn't limit the sale of privacy services to 90+% of the world.

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#93

Post by buckminster »

federicoponzi wrote: post #69
Kiro wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I don't want WhoisGuard.

Why not?

(Not the OP.)

Because whois, along with the many people who scrape it, provide a public record of my domain ownership. With privacy protection it is a lot harder to prove ownership if the registrar makes a balls up.

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#94

Post by freehunter »

NamecheapCEO wrote: post #67
joering2 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their table to see how they stand up against competitors is hilarious! So many free privacy providers since ever like Dreamhost, Namesilo, BrandShelter, Marcaria (some TLDs), but yet you look at that table and you think "wow they are the only one". I take it as a deceiving advertising.

So you get to choose who we perceive as our competitors now? We have a different view of them that doesn't match with yours. That's ok.

I see that so much here on HN. A mainstream, name-brand company rolls out a great feature, and the trolls come out of the woodwork to say "but numberonecheaphosting.spam has had this for years!"

Some people just can't recognize a good thing as a good thing. As a Namecheap customer, though, I'm pretty darn happy at this news!

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#95

Post by [deleted] »

freehunter wrote: post #88
lloyddobbler wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you put it that way, I nod in agreement. But at the same time, I reflect upon the days of the phone book, which most people on this board likely never knew. Your phone number and address would be listed by the phone company as part of your phone number subscription - an unlisted number would cost you more. While times of change, and the searchability of the digital world does raise some other concerns, I still w…

Not everyone has a PO Box, they cost actual real money. Not everyone has a public/business phone number, those cost actual real money. Requiring another phone number and a PO Box means domains go from costing $10/year to $250/year. You can allow people to contact an owner without giving out their information. Craigslist does it.

[deleted]

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#96

Post by oliwarner »

Glyptodon wrote: post #86
oliwarner wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do provide a contact proxy service as part of this though. So that people who need to contact you can, just without learning who you are. Like a PO box. And again, you don't have to buy a domain. Or you can go through the same steps I've can to (eg) mask the sale of land and property with an intermediary company. People's recent outbursts at the WHOIS system strike me as odd. It's been this way for two decades.…

And for two decades it's been a system for the lawyered class at the expense of grandpa Joe who just wants his own model train website and doesn't understand all the phonecalls and spam that came with it.

I don't necessarily disagree but I don't think it's ever been that elitist. Almost anybody can form a legally recognised company and/or have a representative (yes lawyer, accountant, "professionals") stand in for them on public records.

There just seems to be this recent backlash against public records. In the UK, you buy a house and your name goes on the public record (along with the sale price). This seems very similar and useful for similar reasons.

No disagreement that it can also give you an involuntary spamgasm but that's just a symptom of another problem. Cold calling and spamming people still pays the bills.

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#97

Post by maltalex »

mdasen wrote: post #16
stratosgear wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ).

What's the catch though? Domain registration is a pretty competitive business. How come NameSilo can to be so much cheaper?

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#100

Post by dpwm »

AshWills wrote: post #15
tekstar wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Only recently -- probably in response to the GDPR.

I was showing a non-technical colleague only two weeks ago how doing a whois query on our company's .co.uk domain showed our company address and the individual responsible for registration. I just checked again now and pretty much all the useful info has gone.

Post reply on HN