Anonymity in the modern internet age is something that can be very important yet very hard to achieve. Simply by buying a domain name your personal details will be splashed all over the internet. One of the ways of avoiding this is to use a secrecy registration service, perhaps the best known of these is the one that GoDaddy uses – Domains By Proxy. This is a warning though, your privacy may not be as private as you’d hoped for.
In the long and distant past I purchased several sports related domains and built sites on them. This was a long time before I’d ever thought about making money, they were simply hobby websites in what I was interested in. Beause of this one of them in particular flourished. So much so that I was literally getting e-mails each week asking me to sell the domain. After a while I got fed up with it so decided that I wanted some privacy, the registration details were changed to Domainy By Proxy and the emails stopped. The job as they say, was a good un.
That was right up until yesterday. I was getting ready for bed and was just doing one last e-mail check when 3 messages arrived at once. One being a notification for a $20 processing charge from Domains By Proxy, one being notice of their rights to charge me and the other explaining what the problem was. It seems that a law firm has questioned some of the content on the website and contacted Domains By Proxy. Their immediate action was to charge me and then send me a mail with the basic premise “take us out of the equation straight away or else”! The else being they give my details to the person requesting them. Hang on a minute guys. So at the first notice of there being a problem you charge me and then threaten to give out my info to whoever asks? What’s to stop anybody else questioning the same and me not only racking up a stack of $20 charges but also having my details given out to anybody who cares enough to ask?
What is annoying me more than anything is that the documents sent over by the (Dutch) law firm in no way have juristiction over anything to do with the website in question. Domains By Proxy will be aware of this. Not only that but having spoken to expert legal advice regarding rights and copyright there isn’t actually anything wrong with the content of the website. Believe me, if there was I’d have it changed in a second – I try to be one of the good guys online.
Now I’m aware of the roll over attitude of Domains By Proxy I’ll not be using them again. Not only are you paying a yearly fee to keep your details private but all it takes is for somebody to make an enquiry for them to 1. Charge you 2. Back away and give out your details. I would have been better of just keeping my own details.
2 Responses to “Don’t Use Domains By Proxy”
Joey Logano
March 14, 2009
From your experience, it seems to me that paying for DomainsByProxy is really not justifiable. Id say it wouldnt be so bad getting those emails at least people can easily contact you if need be.
|Paul B
March 15, 2009
I was still annoyed when I wrote that and it just comes across as a whinge. What I was trying to say, in a long winded whingy way was if you’re relying on DomainsByProxy to give you privacy then forget it. It’s just a waste of money.
|