Hiding Whois

why?

[dirkji]

Hi all,

What are the advantages of hiding the whois information of the domains you own?

Greetz,

Dirk

[sandyeggo]

Some people run businesses from home and would rather not have an angry customer banging on their front door while they are having dinner (or any customer at all for that matter). I personally would just be happy without having to give an email address that a harvester could get and then add me AGAIN to their spam list. However, there are legitimate reasons that someone would need that information to get a hold of you, but the spammers outweigh those.

[Webwork]

Ya. There's all sorts of reasons for why people do this.

[1milehgh80210]

"What are the advantages of hiding the whois information of the domains you own?"
I don't like getting spam with my full name in the subject line.

[GaryK]

I got tired of spammers using my real name so I changed the domain owner to a DBA.

I got tired of being spammed at the e-mail address I had to provide to my registrar so now I have my mail server delete anything sent to that address unless it comes from my registrar.

I got tired of my snail mailbox being clogged up with useless junk that was clearly the result of my whois details. So I bought a post office box. I visit it once a week to drop off a copy of my home/office backup CDs and throw away all the junk mail.

Finally, I got tired of being called at home during supper. So for a minimal charge I added an additional phone line that does not have a phone connected to it. Call all you want; I can't hear it so I don't care.

The DBA is approximately US$35/annum. The phone line is approximately US$120/annum. The post office box is somewhere around US$50/annum. All told it costs me a little over US$200/annum.

It's amazing what we have to do to maintain some semblance of privacy online.