5 ms·

You know what would make whois data more accurate? Requiring that registrars provide basic anonymization without any extra fee and build a meaningful process fo

You know what would make whois data more accurate? Requiring that registrars provide basic anonymization without any extra fee and build a meaningful process for situations where breaking that anonymization is actually the right thing to do (ie. not an opportunity for collection of bulk mailing address and phone number lists for spammers and phishers). It would cost the registrars something to do so, obviously, but so does this. And a basic level of privacy should never have been allowed to become a premium service to begin with.

hackerboos 11y ago
Nominet (UK domain regulator) allows you to hide most contact info, even email address.
leap_ahead 11y ago
Agreed. The mere idea of having to globally expose your personal details is idiotic. Or at least it belongs to a more civilized society we're not seeing a glimpse of yet.
- azernik 11y ago
  Not a more civilized society. Just a time when the number of people with access to the internet (and thus the whois database) numbered in the hundreds and not the billions.
  - hueving 11y ago
    Billions accessing it now hasn't changed the fact that the basic requirement is to fill out the whois data.
  - leap_ahead 11y ago
    It's not about the numbers. It's about people. Right now not a single individual can be trusted not to misuse somebody's personal details, through malice or negligence, and not create a severe risk for the owner. Being one in a narrow selection of computer professionals doesn't help much. One can be a genius and a person of low ethical standards at the same time. No solution until the civilization progresses much further than what we have now. Until then, lock down the Whois database. Even better, discontinue it altogether. Let individual registrars hold the personal details of their customers. At least it will remove the risk of compromising everyone's privacy with one action by not putting all eggs in one basket.
    - azernik 11y ago
      To start with - I absolutely agree with you about what should be done now. I just thought it was worth explaining why the system came to be the way it is now. And i don't mean to imply that the computer scientists of yesteryear were somehow more honest people. It's just a lot less likely for someone to cheat in a group of a few hundred, where everyone is at most one degree of social separation from everyone else, and everyone is in any case very similar in background. Harder to screw over someone you see at all the conferences than some random stranger online, and if you do there will be social, not just legal, consequences.
BinaryIdiot 11y ago
For what it's worth Google Domains provides free privacy and a few other things (including up to 100 DNS entries per domain). They cost a little more though.
- marincounty 11y ago
  Yea, transferred one domain and it was $10. I haven't heard from them, so I'm assuming it went smooth. After being stalked by Godaddy over the years, I think I developed Stockholm Syndrome? Hay GoDaddy--I will date you again if you bring back coupons for renewals? We were together a lot of years, let's not breakup over money? (If any Registrar reads this, could you explain the extra cost of providing free whois privacy? It seems like the cost associated would be minimal, and the payback would be huge? I heard the true cost to a company for a .com domain is around $7.00? Go ahead and add one or two dollars to the domain for profit. Just be consistent, honest, and no shenanigans. Oh, I looked into Gandi--and they are just to much money.)
  - luch 11y ago
    Funny enough, Laurent Chemla (Gandi's founder) did publish an essay in 2002 called "I am a thief", denouncing registrars' artificial prices (Gandi did cut prices at that time). An extract [FR] : http://www.chemla.org/textes/voleur.html http://www.chemla.org/textes/voleur.html
- JorgeGT 11y ago
  And they are only available in the United States of America.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
zippergz 11y ago
The worst part in my eyes is that at least with some registrars (I experienced this with Dotster), you have to disable whois privacy in order to transfer the domain away. They don't let you receive the authorization code at the anonymized email address, so literally the only way to transfer the domain to a new registrar is to turn off privacy, exposing your information to the world. There may be a technical reason behind this, but it feels more like a way to hold you hostage and prevent you from transferring.
milesf 11y ago
Uniregistry.com provides privacy at no extra cost, along with other useful features. I moved all my domains over last year and have been pretty happy with them.

hackerboos 11y ago

Nominet (UK domain regulator) allows you to hide most contact info, even email address.

leap_ahead 11y ago

Agreed. The mere idea of having to globally expose your personal details is idiotic. Or at least it belongs to a more civilized society we're not seeing a glimpse of yet.

azernik 11y ago
Not a more civilized society. Just a time when the number of people with access to the internet (and thus the whois database) numbered in the hundreds and not the billions.
- hueving 11y ago
  Billions accessing it now hasn't changed the fact that the basic requirement is to fill out the whois data.
- leap_ahead 11y ago
  It's not about the numbers. It's about people. Right now not a single individual can be trusted not to misuse somebody's personal details, through malice or negligence, and not create a severe risk for the owner. Being one in a narrow selection of computer professionals doesn't help much. One can be a genius and a person of low ethical standards at the same time. No solution until the civilization progresses much further than what we have now. Until then, lock down the Whois database. Even better, discontinue it altogether. Let individual registrars hold the personal details of their customers. At least it will remove the risk of compromising everyone's privacy with one action by not putting all eggs in one basket.
  - azernik 11y ago
    To start with - I absolutely agree with you about what should be done now. I just thought it was worth explaining why the system came to be the way it is now. And i don't mean to imply that the computer scientists of yesteryear were somehow more honest people. It's just a lot less likely for someone to cheat in a group of a few hundred, where everyone is at most one degree of social separation from everyone else, and everyone is in any case very similar in background. Harder to screw over someone you see at all the conferences than some random stranger online, and if you do there will be social, not just legal, consequences.

BinaryIdiot 11y ago

For what it's worth Google Domains provides free privacy and a few other things (including up to 100 DNS entries per domain). They cost a little more though.

marincounty 11y ago
Yea, transferred one domain and it was $10. I haven't heard from them, so I'm assuming it went smooth. After being stalked by Godaddy over the years, I think I developed Stockholm Syndrome? Hay GoDaddy--I will date you again if you bring back coupons for renewals? We were together a lot of years, let's not breakup over money? (If any Registrar reads this, could you explain the extra cost of providing free whois privacy? It seems like the cost associated would be minimal, and the payback would be huge? I heard the true cost to a company for a .com domain is around $7.00? Go ahead and add one or two dollars to the domain for profit. Just be consistent, honest, and no shenanigans. Oh, I looked into Gandi--and they are just to much money.)
- luch 11y ago
  Funny enough, Laurent Chemla (Gandi's founder) did publish an essay in 2002 called "I am a thief", denouncing registrars' artificial prices (Gandi did cut prices at that time). An extract [FR] : http://www.chemla.org/textes/voleur.html http://www.chemla.org/textes/voleur.html
JorgeGT 11y ago
And they are only available in the United States of America.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

zippergz 11y ago

The worst part in my eyes is that at least with some registrars (I experienced this with Dotster), you have to disable whois privacy in order to transfer the domain away. They don't let you receive the authorization code at the anonymized email address, so literally the only way to transfer the domain to a new registrar is to turn off privacy, exposing your information to the world. There may be a technical reason behind this, but it feels more like a way to hold you hostage and prevent you from transferring.

milesf 11y ago

Uniregistry.com provides privacy at no extra cost, along with other useful features. I moved all my domains over last year and have been pretty happy with them.