Domain privacy

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Domain privacy (often called Whois privacy) is a service offered by a number of domain name registrars. [1] A user buys privacy from the company, who in turn replaces the user's information in the WHOIS with the information of a forwarding service (for email and sometimes postal mail, it is done by a proxy server).

Contents

Level of anonymity

Registrars typically collect personal information to provide the service. Some registrars take little persuasion to release the so-called 'private' information to the world, requiring only a phone request or a cease and desist letter. [2] [3] [4] Others, however, handle privacy with more precaution, using measures including hosting domain names offshore and accepting cryptocurrencies for payment so that the registrar has no knowledge of the domain name owner's personal information (which would otherwise be transmitted with credit card transactions). It is debatable whether or not this practice is at odds with the domain registration requirement of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Privacy by default

Some top-level domains have privacy caveats:

Privacy forbidden

Implications

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) broadly requires the mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address of those owning or administrating a domain name to be made publicly available through the "WHOIS" directories. However, that policy enables spammers, direct marketers, identity thieves, or other attackers to use the directory to acquire personal information about those people. Although ICANN has been working to change WHOIS to enable greater privacy, there is a lack of consensus among major stakeholders as to what type of change should be made. [17] However, with the offer of private registration from many registrars, some of the risk has been mitigated.

Researchers in the industry have worked on improving the design of the domain name system, in order to reduce the likelihood of attackers compromising the infrastructure. They have done so by allowing for varying options and adjusting the guidelines of how they operate. [18]

Litigation

With the help of "private registration", the service can be the legal owner of the domain. This has occasionally resulted in legal problems. Ownership of a domain name is given by the organization name of the owner contact in the domain's WHOIS record. There are typically four contact positions in a domain's WHOIS record: owner, administrator, billing, and technical. Some registrars will not shield the owner organization name in order to protect the ownership of the domain name. [19]

There has been at least one lawsuit against Namecheap, Inc. for its role as owner/registrant; [20] Namecheap lost its motion to dismiss. Silverstein v. Alivemax, et al. Los Angeles Superior Court Case Number BC480994 was dismissed in May 2014. [21] Silverstein is well known for his anti-spam and email privacy campaigns, most notably in the case of William Silverstein v Keynetics, Inc., No. 17-15176 (9th Cir. 2018), but this was decided for Keynetics in March 2018. [22]

Ownership of domains held by a privacy service was also an issue in the RegisterFly case, in which a registrar effectively ceased operations and then went bankrupt. Customers encountered serious difficulties in regaining control of the domains involved. [23] ICANN has since remedied that situation by requiring all accredited registrars to maintain their customers' contact data in escrow. In the event a registrar loses its accreditation, gTLD domains, along with the escrowed contact data, will be transferred to another accredited registrar.[ citation needed ] [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ↑ Elliott, Kathryn. "The who, what, where, when, and why of WHOIS: Privacy and accuracy concerns of the WHOIS database". SMU Sci. & Tech. L. Rev.
  2. ↑ "Private domains not so private?". CNET News.com. 2005-08-15. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  3. ↑ Thomas Roessler (2003-04-15). "More on Domains By Proxy".
  4. ↑ Wendy Seltzer (2003-04-11). "proxy fight [Domains-by-proxy update]". Archived from the original on 2008-06-05. Retrieved 2008-06-16.
  5. ↑ nic.at GmbH (2010-05-21). "Change of nic.at Whois policy". Archived from the original on 2014-06-06. Retrieved 2014-05-05.
  6. ↑ "Information service - Lookup - Internet Domains". www.nic.ch. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  7. ↑ "DENIC Putting Extensive Changes into Force for .DE Whois Lookup Service by 25 May 2018".
  8. ↑ EURid. ".eu domain name WHOIS policy" . Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  9. ↑ AFNIC. "AFNIC Data publication and access policy" . Retrieved 2017-06-26.
  10. ↑ "La politica del Registro .it sul Database dei Nomi Assegnati (DBNA) e sul servizio WHOIS" (PDF). NIC.it. 2022-05-30.
  11. ↑ Van Miltenburg, Olaf (12 January 2010). "SIDN anonimiseert whois-gegevens" [SIDN anonymizes whois data]. Tweakers (in Dutch). Retrieved 4 September 2014.
  12. ↑ "SIDN implements Whois changes from 12 January 2010". SIDN. 1 January 2010. Archived from the original on 29 January 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
  13. ↑ Nominet. "Nominet WHOIS Opt Out".
  14. ↑ NIC.BR, Núcleo de Informação e Coordenação do Ponto BR (April 25, 2022). "Contrato para registro de nome de domínio sob o ".br"" [Contract for registration of domain name under ".br"]. registro.br (in Portuguese). III. estar ciente de que parte dos dados informados pelo REQUERENTE no momento de requisição de registro de nome de domínio ficarão disponíveis à consulta pública por meio do serviço de diretório do REGISTRO.br. Esses dados são publicados para permitir a identificação dos responsáveis pelos domínios registrados sob o ".br", de forma a garantir a transparência na atividade de registro e a responsabilização daqueles que utilizarem esse recurso de forma abusiva, tornando a Internet mais segura e a sua governança mais transparente a toda sociedade. a) Para domínios de titularidade de pessoa jurídica serão publicados o nome empresarial, número do CNPJ, país, nome do responsável, endereço, telefone, dados do contato titular e do contato técnico. b) Para domínios de titularidade de pessoa física, serão publicados o nome, CPF, país, dados do contato titular e do contato técnico.
  15. ↑ Registry.in. "Terms and Conditions for registrants" (PDF).
  16. ↑ "Domain Privacy and Australian Domain Names | Domain Registration AU".
  17. ↑ "The Privacy Conundrum in Domain Registration". Act Now Domains. Archived from the original on 7 March 2023. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
  18. ↑ Khormali, Aminollah; Park, Jeman; Alasmary, Hisham; Anwar, Afsah; Saad, Muhammad; Mohaisen, David (2021-02-11). "Domain name system security and privacy: A contemporary survey". Computer Networks. 185: 107699. arXiv: 2006.15277 . doi:10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107699. ISSN   1389-1286.
  19. ↑ "1 Introduction & Background to Whois | Generic Names Supporting Organization". gnso.icann.org. Retrieved 2021-04-20.
  20. ↑ "SolidHost v Namecheap" (PDF).
  21. ↑ "Case Summary - Online Services - LA Court". www.lacourt.org. Retrieved 2018-08-13.
  22. ↑ "Silverstein v Keynetics, Inc" . Retrieved 2018-08-13.
  23. ↑ "Anger and fear as domain firm slowly implodes". Computer Business Review. February 21, 2007. Retrieved December 11, 2013.
  24. ↑ Elliott, Kathryn (2009). "The Who, What, Where, When, and Why of WHOIS: Privacy and Accuracy Concerns of the WHOIS Database" (PDF). Science and Technology Law Review. 12. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-03-29. Retrieved 2020-10-30.
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