Christine ™ aka Big Pink Cookie To Make a Short Story Long…

Not So Private After All…

In my years of blog hosting, I’ve often had clients request a way to register a domain while keeping their identity private. People do it for a variety of reasons - they want to talk about their boss, their ex-wife, whatever. Within the past year, I’ve sent them to one registrar in particular because they offered a “privacy” option.

It turns out that it isn’t so private after all.

Go read about the fact that they will “out” you if they feel the need, without following any of their own guidelines in the process. Good luck to Alan as he deals with the problems they have caused by making his private information available to the public.

[via Mac]

I *hate* go daddy - I made the mistake of buying ONE domain from them and I instantly started receiving PHONE CALLS from them, with their trying to sell me more services. I had NO IDEA that by buying a domain from them I would open myself up to their telemarketing calls. I have always used wwwdomains.com in the past - and I’ll never stray from them again. Go Daddy may be cheaper, but I’ve NEVER had any problems with wwwdomains.com. And really - we’re talking about a dollar or two difference per year. Worth it - to not be harrased by them!

victims aren’t we all,nobody cares about this guys privacy issue, get use to it, your info is being sold to the highest bidder, its business as usual.

I notice you have google ads on your site, guess you don’t know that by doing so, you are contributing to the selling of information. No i suppose not, your focus is on how much $$ you’ll make in the process.

yep that’s the way it works

Hmmm… in 2 years, I’ve made a grand total of $100 off of the Google ads on my site. More importantly, how does that contribute to the selling of information? Oh, and this guy’s private information wasn’t “sold” - it was released, after he PAID to keep it private.

Maybe you should go and read his whole site to get the rest of the story? M’kay? Good.

Its your Secret Pal~ Invading your blog space to say Hi!

I go through Go Daddy for my sites and did the privacy now with what is being said about them I am considering switching. Thanks for giving the heads up!

Ugh, that really sucks for Alan. I use Registerfly.com as my registrar. They have a privacy feature that masks your personal info in public WHOIS databases, and I use it with my domains because I’ve had problems with an online stalker in the past. I haven’t read the fine print about under what circumstances they would release my info because it hadn’t occured to me that the would once I’d paid for the privacy option. I’ll go take a look at that now. :/

Oh GREAT! I just registered my kids’ schools PTA’s domain with GoDaddy ANDDDD paid for the privacy feature. This is a nonprofit organization, sheesh. Unfortunately, fauxdaddy.com is down and we can’t get the story — anyone? Anyone?

So who should we switch to?

Meryl, when I get e-mail up and running on this PC, I’ll send you a note there also, but hopefully you subscribed to the comments here. Alan of fauxdaddy.org has suggested going to the EFF.org website, where they have tips for non-profits. One is getting a PO Box in another city to use for the address.

It was an issue for him because people complained that he was revealing the “secrets” of poetry editors (I think I’ve got that right - but don’t quote me on it!) and they wanted his anonymous identity revealed. For something like a PTA, can’t you just use the school’s address? That is what I would do.