How much personal info do you reveal?

Domain name registration

[spikedo55]

When registering a domain name, the registrar requests that you provide contact information. I've seen some people put all their contact info, and others leave everything blank except an e-mail address. In these security-minded days, is it okay to just include an e-mail (in case someone really needs to contact you, e.g., to make an offer on your domain name or site)? Or do you have to include all your personal info? What do you do? Thanks.

Spike

[rcjordan]

> do you have to include all your personal info

Though the likelihood of any action coming against any specific domain is minimal, I believe using false data can put the domain registration at risk of being invalidated.

But everyone is getting privacy-conscious, and I predict you're going to see a big increase of the use of proxy registration service's like godaddy's. We've even run across a few lately on hobby sites.

[edited by: rcjordan at 6:21 pm (utc) on Mar. 25, 2003]

[netguy]

rcjordan... true, registrar terms specifically say that accurate information must be used. By the looks of many WHOIS results, many (particularly foreign registrations) have virtually no information, or clearly false information in them.

I would say you should limit the amount of 'personal' information, particularly home address, phone number, etc. and even use a 'free email' service if possible, rather than an email tied to your business.

Virtually all mine are private, but as a side note, I registered a domain for a friend and used my office telephone number instead of a voice mail. 2 days later, I received a call from a hosting company that asked if we needed hosting for that particular domain.

Mining for such information is certainly illegal, but unfortunately, its clearly done all the time.