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WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

namecheap.com

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Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#101

Post by ryanlol »

voidmain0001 wrote: post #99

I really like the proxy domain registration offered by Njalla. https://njal.la/ With it, there's no need for hiding from WHOIS.

http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/text/2017/d2017...

Read this UDRP decision, they found that using Njallas proxy service constitutes bad faith.

While this was a terribly misguided decision, UDRP cases rely heavily on precedent, so it'd be tricky to get this reversed.

Don't get me wrong though, most of the time njal.la is pretty nice and I have tens of domains with them. I just wouldn't use them for anything very important.

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#102

Post by pasbesoin »

For years, they've had a standing active "coupon" value that reduces it from $2.99 to $0.99 / year / domain. Unfortunately, you can't apply it to automatic renewals.

This finally solves that problem.

--

P.S. TO NAMECHEAP (who sometimes surfs HN, IIRC): PLEASE make sure that WhoisGuard is reliably renewed with this change in place.

Given the occasional glitches I've seen in your systems in the past, I want to emphasize this. It would be most unfortunate if a glitch exposed contact information: Once out, you can't take it back.

It took a long time for me to decide to try/trust autorenew. I'm worried I may now need to go back to manually signing in at each renewal, to make sure nothing has gone sideways.

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#104

Post by aglionby »

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,…

It wasn't necessary when I registered a .uk domain ~3 years ago; you could just set your email etc to be private with Nominet (the UK registry).

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#105

Post by Nadya »

lloyddobbler wrote: post #84
ve55 wrote: post #46

It's pretty absurd to require users to continually pay you money with threat of revealing all of their personal information publicly if they ever choose to stop paying you. I can't imagine many industries getting away with that except for registrars due to how the whois system has worked historically, but it's basically just extortion, keep paying us or you're doxxed. Whois privacy should be the default everywhere fo…

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…

I exist as a pseudonymous individual online. Nobody has any right to know my phone number or name just because I wish to have a website. Nobody has any right to be able to contact me just because I own a domain. If I wanted to be contacted I would list methods on how to do so. Coincidentally, I do just that on my website and without doxxing myself in the process. There is no justification or purpose for that information being public. I shouldn't need to buy a burner phone or a PO box to remain anonymous.

Not to mention the chilling effect on speech it would have.

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#106

Post by lightedman »

csomar wrote: post #90
NamecheapCEO wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it also needs to be made available via public whois.

So how is whoisguard legal?

I doubt it is, and this might as well be extortion, or maybe in some cases, actively aiding and abetting a crime.

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#107

Post by Moter8 »

weinzierl wrote: post #40
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,…

DENIC (.de) has had it’s own policy including their own form of protection for a long time. Currently you can query for generic data and an abuse email address but the contact details are only revealed if you are the domain holder or have a solid reason[1]. > In all other cases, DENIC will generally not provide information. Instead, if you think that the contents of a website that can be accessed via a domain may be…

I've talked with someone on IRC about this, and apparently they do give out the email rather easily (without being law enforcement, abuse stuff, etc), so there's still some possibility to contact the domain owner even if there's no website running.

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#109

Post by swlkr »

davidkellis wrote: post #82

I had just switched all my domains over to porkbun for this very reason - whois guard wasn't free at namecheap. I think I'll just leave the domains I moved there, and then continue with namecheap going forward. Now I view them as essentially equivalent plus or minus a few pennies per year.

This is the first I've heard of porkbun, it looks interesting

Re: WhoisGuard Privacy Protection is now free

#110

Post by [deleted] »

freehunter wrote: post #94
NamecheapCEO wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

[deleted]
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