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WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

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21–30 of 163 posts

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#21
post #3

thank god, tired of paying extra for "whois privacy" that various registers offer running a hobby project should not require you to share your private contact details with the world

I like what CIRA (the .ca registration authority) does. The default is for them to hide your contact information. You have to opt-in to make it public.

They then handle all communications people want to send to you. More registration authorities should take stances like this.

Now if only they could get DNSSEC support...

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#22
post #21
post #3

thank god, tired of paying extra for "whois privacy" that various registers offer running a hobby project should not require you to share your private contact details with the world

I like what CIRA (the .ca registration authority) does. The default is for them to hide your contact information. You have to opt-in to make it public. They then handle all communications people want to send to you. More registration authorities should take stances like this. Now if only they could get DNSSEC support...

CIRA has had DNSSEC support since 2014. https://cira.ca/dnssec-faqs

I use Google Domains and it supports DNSSEC on my .ca domains.

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#23

The WHOIS blackout has already started, I recently registered a domain with a non-European ccTLD, but with Gandi for the registrar. The WHOIS reads: Administrative Contact: Not displayed due to GDPR

My .me domain displays (and always has displayed IIRC) nothing but my full name (not that interesting as the domain is my name). Everything else are the contact details from Gandi.

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#24
post #6
post #2

domain registration data is in a weird place for the modern internet. I can see the value of having a real registry when it was first developed, but now it seems like a pretty easy way for people to shoot themselves in the foot with regards to privacy. Also, some registrars charge a premium for WHOIS privacy. It should not cost extra to have your legal name and address to be hidden from the entirety of the internet.

Do any registrars not charge a premium for Whois privacy? I know Hover doesn't have a separate Whois privacy entry price, but the base price at Hover seems to be about the price of a domain + Whois privacy at other registrars.

NameSilo doesn't - but they were also recently acquired so there's no guarantee if the new owners will let things be the same or change it.

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#25
post #21
post #3

thank god, tired of paying extra for "whois privacy" that various registers offer running a hobby project should not require you to share your private contact details with the world

I like what CIRA (the .ca registration authority) does. The default is for them to hide your contact information. You have to opt-in to make it public. They then handle all communications people want to send to you. More registration authorities should take stances like this. Now if only they could get DNSSEC support...

I emailed them about this just last week:

Me: Are people who are not Canadian citizens able to purchase/register .ca domains? I've read that a Canadian phone number is needed for registration. Additionally, can a non-Canadian citizen get CIRA's WHOIS privacy for their domain?

Their Response: Thanks for getting in touch with CIRA, [redacted]. CIRA has 18 Canadian Presence categories, we require full contact information when an individual or a business is registering a .CA domain name. That doesn't mean you have to be in Canada to hold a .CA domain, many Canadian live all over the world and registered .CA domain names. A non Canadian could hold a .CA domain name but that would require them to either register a Canadian Trade Mark, Canadian Corporation, or hold a Permanent Resident card. The WHOIS information is "masked" or "privacy protected" when the .CA category of "Canadian Citizen - Individual" is selected.

So it looks like WHOIS privacy is not easily available if one isn't a Canadian citizen. I still like the model, however.

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#26
post #6
post #2

domain registration data is in a weird place for the modern internet. I can see the value of having a real registry when it was first developed, but now it seems like a pretty easy way for people to shoot themselves in the foot with regards to privacy. Also, some registrars charge a premium for WHOIS privacy. It should not cost extra to have your legal name and address to be hidden from the entirety of the internet.

Do any registrars not charge a premium for Whois privacy? I know Hover doesn't have a separate Whois privacy entry price, but the base price at Hover seems to be about the price of a domain + Whois privacy at other registrars.

I have some domains in OVH, they do not charge for privacy. Generally you can check out https://tld-list.com/tld/com for the list of providers which offer free whois privacy for a given domain.

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#28
I work for a popular hosting company and WHOIS data is causing constants issues - mostly for non-technical customers, but on one occasion, I accidentally used my work mail address during testing. The WHOIS database for, say, the .net zone is extensively mined by spammers and telemarketers.

I received a torrent of marketing mails for months even though I immediately changed it to a noreply mail address. We receive numerous complaints from customers who ignored our warnings.

Re: WHOIS blackout period likely starting in May

#29
post #21
post #3

thank god, tired of paying extra for "whois privacy" that various registers offer running a hobby project should not require you to share your private contact details with the world

I like what CIRA (the .ca registration authority) does. The default is for them to hide your contact information. You have to opt-in to make it public. They then handle all communications people want to send to you. More registration authorities should take stances like this. Now if only they could get DNSSEC support...

I like how people responsible for .pl (Poland) domain handle this. First of all, they list only very basic data, with no names, addresses, etc. when you query their whois. To see the full data, you have to go to their website and type the captcha, which filters out at least some of the bots. But even there they display the data if it belongs to a company, they won't show any details if it's registered to a private person.
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