This article is a quick overview of domain privacy. It will cover what domain privacy is, discuss which registrars offer this service, and for which domains.

There are many registrars today who offer domain privacy. The rules set by internet governing bodies state that there must be some contact info for each domain. Some registrars now put their information in the whois database in place of the user's. In the past I have gotten a lot of spam due to my information being in whois. I even got a business proposal with my address. I do not think the person had any malicious intent, but I did not like the fact that they were able to get my address from whois. One supplement to domain privacy is to get a mail box at a UPS Store or a PO Box. The only disadvantage to a PO Box is that the USPS does not accept packages from private carriers.

Some registrars are more willing to cave to requests for information than others. (GoDaddy is particularly notorious for this.) Plus many charge extra for privacy. 1&1 includes domain privacy free of charge. 1&1 offers domain privacy for .com, .net, .org, .name, .info, .biz, .ws, .cc, .tv, .mobi, but not for .us.

For my domains I am using 1 and 1. They seem okay. They are the only one that I have found that does not charge extra for domain privacy. They have pretty low prices, but they do not allow multi-year discounts. Perhaps there is a connection there. Their site is not designed too well. You have to dig around to find out when your domains expire. Yes, I have this written down somewhere, but it would be nice if they displayed that information. Also, cancelling domains is done via another subdomain: cancel.1and1.com, which requires a separate login. You have to dig through the FAQs to get that information. But they do offer true domain privacy. They are owned by a German company. Their American affiliate is in Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania, USA.

.us is the country domain for the United States. You do not need to be a United States citizen or organization to get one, but you must have a presence in the USA to get a .us domain. Apparently governments and ICANN can and do audit domains. From what I have gathered enforcement is inconsistent (it varies from one domain to the other, and even within a domain), but it is best to be careful.

There are also restrictions on .name. You cannot register someone else's name, or the name of a fictional character to which you do not have the rights. 1&1 states has a page stating that "To register a .name top level domain (TLD) it must come from a person's name. This could be the legal name of a person but also a name the person is commonly known by, for example a nickname, pseudonym, alias, or stage name. This name must belong to an individual (like yourself) or a fictitious character to which you have rights, such as a copyright, a trademark, or similar. It may begin or end with numbers to set it apart from other people with the same name." I could not tell if Network Solutions gives any warning about .name, and GoDaddy does not offer .name at all. Considering that anyone else's intellectual property is off-limits anyway, I do not know why 1&1 feels the need to offer this disclaimer.

Some countries do not put restrictions on use of their top-level domains. .ws  is the domain for Samoa, although you could say it means "web site". Many top-level domains are used in domain hacks in many languages. .cc  is the domain for the Cocos Islands. .tv  is the domain for Tuvalu. Hopefully climate change will not wipe these countries off the map.

.mobi is intended for sites to be accessed on mobile phones. This is audited pretty strictly. Phone manufacturers and carriers want you to do everything on your phone. You can test a site or page at ready.mobi. Since mobile devices have different needs and abilities than desktops and laptops, you may have to run two sites. This might not work for small, independent and/or private and anonymous sites. .biz must be used for business sites.

Some registrars will offer privacy for third-level domains, like "com.cn", or "us.com". Personally, I do not have any interest in registering a third-level domain. For example, ".info" is a top-level domain. "BlueNine.info" is a second-level domain within the top-level. Many people register second-level domain names. I could create as many third-level domains (or subdomains) within BlueNine.info as I wish as long as I have BlueNine.info. Some examples would be "mail.BlueNine.info", or "www.BlueNine.info". If I can get something in .com, why get it in idn.com?

There are other registrars besides 1&1 who offer domain privacy, usually for an extra fee. I will list some other registrars, and I will mention where they are located. As Jakob Nielsen has pointed out, Even though phone numbers and email addresses are the most requested forms of contact info, having a physical mailing address on the site might be more important because it's one of the key credibility markers. A company with no address is not one you want to give money to. (I am not asking for money.)

GoDaddy offers private registration for  .com, .net, .info, .org, .me (Montenegro), .tv, .mobi, .biz, .ws and .cc.  They are probably the most famous private registrar. I used to use them for a few domains, until I found out that they do not honor privacy as much as they say. According to Wikipedia, they have closed domains in response to complaints about content (frequently from large corporations) without notifying their clients. There is a site called NoDaddy dedicated to tracking GoDaddy controversies. NoDaddy also has a forum in which people discuss other privacy registrars.To get domain privacy with GoDaddy, you have to pay extra, and get an account through one of their subsidiaries called Domains By Proxy. The interface for that site is not very good, and I found out through trial and error on several computers that Domains By Proxy can only be accessed via special versions of Internet Explorer. GoDaddy also owns Wild West Domains and Blue Razor domains.

DomainDiscover offers domain privacy for com, net, org, biz and info for $6.97 a year. They offer registration for com, net, org, info, mobi, name, asia, de, be, eu, biz, in, ws, us, me.uk, co.uk, org.uk, me, nu, cc, bz, tv, cn, la, nl, org.tw, idv.tw, us.com, com.tw, eu.com, gb.com, qc.com, tw, kr.com, com.cn, net.cn, org.cn, net.nz, cn.com, uk.com, co.nz, org.nz, br.com, de.com, hu.com, jpn.com, no.com, ru.com, sa.com, se.com, uy.com, za.com, se.net, uk.net, gb.net, sh, io, jp, at, ac and com.mx. They are based in San Diego and Poway, California, USA.

Dynadot.com offers semi-privacy. They will change your address and contact info, but not your name. They offer com, net, org, info, tv, biz, mobi, name, asia, ws, co.uk, cc and me. They do not offer privacy for us, cn and eu. I am not clear why Name Cheap can offer privacy for cn but Dynadot cannot. They are based in San Mateo, California, USA.

eNom offers domain privacy, and they call it "ID Protect," and it is true domain privacy. They even allow you to turn it on and off as needed. Most services seem to require it to be private of public for an entire year. Their FAQ page has a lot of information about different top-level domains. They offer second level domains as well. I cannot find a page giving their prices for registering. They have a pricing page that gives the prices they charge to become a reseller. The domains they offer are .MOBI, .NAME, .AC, .AT, .BE, .BZ, .CA, .CN, .DE, .EU, .GS, .IN, .IO, .IT, .JP, .LA, .MS, .NL, .NU, .NZ, .SH, .TC, .TM, .TW, .US, .UK, .VG and .WS. The domains they offer with privacy are .ASIA, .BIZ, .COM, .INFO, .NET, .ORG, .CC, .ME and .TV. I do not know why they do not offer privacy for .NAME and .WS while other registrars do. They are based in Bellevue, Washington, USA.

Katz Global Media seems pretty serious about privacy. They have servers in multiple countries ( Australia, China, Hong Kong (which they spell "Honk Kong"), India, Malaysia, Panama, Singapore and the USA. (How you can offer privacy in China or Sing-NO!-pore is beyond me.) They will give privacy for many domains, but you can not change any domain info yourself. They do it all for you. In order to make a change, you must send an email including username and password for your account. I am not sure why they can accept an email but are not willing to provide a secure web login screen. Somehow they can take your money without getting your personal information. Yet they take PayPal. Even gold buillion. Their prices are higher than other registrars. They also have hosting plans, but they do not offer a lot of features (unless you go with a dedcated host).

Katz offers privacy for the following domains: .com, .net, .org, .us, .biz, .info, .ws, co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk, IDN.com (international commerce), IDN.net (international technology), IDN.cc, .cc, .hk, .cn (China), .com.cn, .net.cn, .org.cn, .tw, .com.tw, .net.tw, .idv.tw, .be, .tv, .cx, .tc, .at, .co.nz (New Zealand), .net.nz, .org.nz and .jp. 

Network Solutions will offer private registration for .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .mobi, and .name  Network Solutions states that they do not offer private registration for .at (Austria), .be (Belgium), .ca (Canada), .cn (China), .de (Germany), .eu (the European Union), .pro, .us and .tw (Taiwan). .pro seems to have the same business-only restriction as .biz. Network Solutions even has a site advocating private registration. They are based in Herndon, Virginia.

Dotster states that privacy is ONLY available for .com, .net, .info, and .mobi domains (emphasis theirs). They are based in Vancouver, Washington. Domain.com offers it for all .com, .net, .info, and .mobi domains. DomainRegister.com offers it for .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .bz (Belize), .cc, .cx (Christmas Island), .gd (Grenada), .gs (South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands), .la (Laos), .ms (Montserrat), .tc (Turks and Caicos Islands), .tv, .vg (British Virgin Islands), and .ws.

NameSecure offers it for .us.com, .eu.com, .de.com, .uk.com, .la, .com, .net, .org, .info and .biz. According to NameSecure and Wikipedia, ".info" will be interpreted as "information" to speakers of 37 languages. This makes it a good domain. I have a few domains with them. I think they are a subsidiary of Network Solutions. Like Netwok Solutions, they are based in Herndon, Virginia. I got the address in some email messages, and was able to find it on their site only by doing a search on Yahoo.

A registar recommended at NoDaddy is Gandi. They will hide your location, but not your name. So this is not true domain privacy. They are based in France, and I do not want to deal with exchange rates or a support phone line that speaks a different language. Beyond that, from what I have heard they seem pretty good.

Another registrar that is mentioned at NoDaddy is Moniker. They offer 142 domains. Privacy is $4 per domain. I put BlueNine in there, and I found a few more that were taken. Getting a .ki domain would cost $1300 a year. If you come across a BlueNine.ki, that is not me. But $4 for domain privacy is a real bargain at that price. I guess Kiribati must really need the money. Moniker is based in Pompano Beach, Florida.

Here are the 142 domains offered at Moniker: .com, .net, .org, .info, .mobi, .biz, .us, .co.uk, .asia, .de, .tv, .cc, .ws, .in, .jp, .la, .cn, .tm, .fm, .be, .bz, .at, .ac, .nl, .me.uk, .org.uk, .io, .sh, .com.mx, .it, .co.nz, .net.nz, .org.nz, .eu, .aero, .ag, .com.ag, .net.ag, .org.ag, .am, .co.at, .or.at, .ch, .com.cn, .net.cn, .org.cn, .cx, .es, .com.es, .nom.es, .org.es, .gd, .gs, .im, .firm.in, .co.in, .net.in, .org.in, .gen.in, .ind.in, .travel, .jobs, .ki, .com.ki, .net.ki, .org.ki, .li, .md, .mn, .ms, .mu, .com.mu, .net.mu, .org.mu, .name, .nf, .com.nf, .net.nf, .nu, .pl, .com.pl, .net.pl, .org.pl, .info.pl, .biz.pl, .ru, .sc, .com.sc, .net.sc, .org.sc, .se, .sg, .com.sg, .tc, .tk, .tl, .tw, .com.tw, .org.tw, .club.tw, .ebiz.tw, .game.tw, .idv.tw, .vc, .com.vc, .net.vc, .org.vc, .vg, .ah.cn, .bj.cn, .cq.cn, .fj.cn, .gd.cn, .gs.cn, .gx.cn, .gz.cn, .ha.cn, .hb.cn, .he.cn, .hi.cn, .hk.cn, .hl.cn, .hn.cn, .jl.cn, .js.cn, .jx.cn, .ln.cn, .mo.cn, .nm.cn, .nx.cn, .qh.cn, .sc.cn, .sd.cn, .sh.cn, .sn.cn, .sx.cn, .tj.cn, .tw.cn, .xj.cn, .xz.cn, .yn.cn, .me

Name Cheap offers privacy for a bit extra. They offer privacy for an additional fee for biz, bz, cc, cn, com, com.cn, in, info, mobi, net, net.cn, nu, org, org.cn, tv and ws domains. They also offer registrations for .me, .us, .eu, .ca, .nu, .de, .co.uk and .org.uk. I was not able to find a physical address on their site.

MyDomain offers privacy for .COM, .NET, .INFO, and .MOBI. They offer registrations for .me, .mobi, .name, .tv, .jobs, .coop, .museum, .aero, .bz, .cc, .sc, .la, .md, .cn, .com.cn, .net.cn, .org.cn, .eu, .it, .ca, .at, .be, .ch, .de, .dk, .fr, .nl, .co.uk, .me.uk, .org.uk, .vc, .ws, .hn and .nu. They are based in Vancouver, Washington, USA, but I was not able to find an address.

Updates:

Sunday, 10 May 2009 11:07
Wednesday, 08 April 2009 12:11
Sunday, 28 December 2008 20:54
Tuesday, 16 December 2008 14:27