4 ms·

Are you really forced to enter correct personal information for all domains, regardless of TLD and registrar?

by hnarn 6y ago

gear54rus 6y ago
I imagine your bank card payments may be somehow traced to your own identity but don't quote me on that. I guess some crypto options might help that.
- hnarn 6y ago
  Surely Whois information does not include detailed information about past payments?
  - koheripbal 6y ago
    No, but as long as a payment to a CC is going through, then the registrar assumes you are "identified".
- throwaway_jobs 6y ago
  I have accomplished anonymity in this respect (payment tracking) by purchasing visa gift cards with cash and registering a domain with said gift card. I’m still sure I could be identified somehow. Funny enough I was planning to do something along the lines of an ICO through this anonymous website/page and provide the ICO funds and transfer the domain itself to whoever identified me as the domain owner.
ceejayoz 6y ago
Yes. https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/contact-verification-2013-05-03-en https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/contact-verification-2... > The Whois Accuracy Program Specification of the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) requires registrars to validate and verify certain Whois data fields, which may include contacting you by phone, email or postal mail. Registrars must suspend or delete domain names that are not timely verified.
- hnarn 6y ago
  Let me re-phrase, or ask the question differently: is this enforced? And out of curiosity, is there any reason the registrar for a domain can't be a corporation -- meaning you could either hide behind a shell company, or hire a company with the explicit purpose of anonymizing your domain? Or even hire a person for that matter, who only tracks what domain paid their yearly fee?
  - gruez 6y ago
    In my experience they only check the email. Considering that domain registrars operate on razor thin margins I doubt they would bother sending snail mail to validate addresses, for instance.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - Macha 6y ago
    This is the whois privacy model used by many registrars already. The one issue is that ICANN then views the registrar as the rightful owner of the domain, which could cause issues with e.g. a registrar bankruptcy if the creditors decide to make use of that to sell off domains.
  - Santosh83 6y ago
    To some extent they seem to do. For instance I had forgotten to update the WHOIS record for phone number when my number had changed and after some months I started getting reminders whenever I logged into my registrar's site that the phone number was not reachable and that I need to update it. But no emails, and certainly no paper mails regarding this. But no enforcement. Nothing happened even though I dragged my feet updating my phone number for a considerable time.
  - epc 6y ago
    In my experience only phone numbers and email addresses are verified, and only on initial domain registration. Post registration I get regular "ICANN verification" emails which all pretty much say to only act if there's incorrect information. With the exception of the .nyc TLD I've been able to use a PO Box and a forwarding phone number for registrations across registrars for years. .nyc provided no way to demonstration the required NYC nexus except for the postal address to be a physical building in New York City so I let that domain lapse.

Are you really forced to enter correct personal information for all domains, regardless of TLD and registrar?

by hnarn 6y ago

Are you really forced to enter correct personal information for all domains, regardless of TLD and registrar?

I imagine your bank card payments may be somehow traced to your own identity but don't quote me on that. I guess some crypto options might help that.

hnarn 6y ago
Surely Whois information does not include detailed information about past payments?
- koheripbal 6y ago
  No, but as long as a payment to a CC is going through, then the registrar assumes you are "identified".
throwaway_jobs 6y ago
I have accomplished anonymity in this respect (payment tracking) by purchasing visa gift cards with cash and registering a domain with said gift card. I’m still sure I could be identified somehow. Funny enough I was planning to do something along the lines of an ICO through this anonymous website/page and provide the ICO funds and transfer the domain itself to whoever identified me as the domain owner.

ceejayoz 6y ago

Yes. https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/contact-verification-2013-05-03-en https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/contact-verification-2... > The Whois Accuracy Program Specification of the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) requires registrars to validate and verify certain Whois data fields, which may include contacting you by phone, email or postal mail. Registrars must suspend or delete domain names that are not timely verified.

hnarn 6y ago
Let me re-phrase, or ask the question differently: is this enforced? And out of curiosity, is there any reason the registrar for a domain can't be a corporation -- meaning you could either hide behind a shell company, or hire a company with the explicit purpose of anonymizing your domain? Or even hire a person for that matter, who only tracks what domain paid their yearly fee?
- gruez 6y ago
  In my experience they only check the email. Considering that domain registrars operate on razor thin margins I doubt they would bother sending snail mail to validate addresses, for instance.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- Macha 6y ago
  This is the whois privacy model used by many registrars already. The one issue is that ICANN then views the registrar as the rightful owner of the domain, which could cause issues with e.g. a registrar bankruptcy if the creditors decide to make use of that to sell off domains.
- Santosh83 6y ago
  To some extent they seem to do. For instance I had forgotten to update the WHOIS record for phone number when my number had changed and after some months I started getting reminders whenever I logged into my registrar's site that the phone number was not reachable and that I need to update it. But no emails, and certainly no paper mails regarding this. But no enforcement. Nothing happened even though I dragged my feet updating my phone number for a considerable time.
- epc 6y ago
  In my experience only phone numbers and email addresses are verified, and only on initial domain registration. Post registration I get regular "ICANN verification" emails which all pretty much say to only act if there's incorrect information. With the exception of the .nyc TLD I've been able to use a PO Box and a forwarding phone number for registrations across registrars for years. .nyc provided no way to demonstration the required NYC nexus except for the postal address to be a physical building in New York City so I let that domain lapse.