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Comment by devit | Hacker News Reader

They don't hide the name because you cannot hide the name while legally owning the domain yourself.

Services that hide the name actually result in a company (e.g. "Domains by Proxy LLC") purchasing and holding domain ownership for you, which is a very different legal arrangement with different risks.

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Treat a domain like money: if you want it held pseudonymously, you put it in the ownership of a shell corporation you control (through power of attorney to the board of directors), but don't own any equity in.

While I would love to do that it just isn't feasible for me and probably most others. ICANN really needs to provide better controls to avoid resorting to such workarounds.

> ICANN really needs to provide better controls to avoid resorting to such workarounds.

Not only ICANN but the whole financial world. Shell corporations provide no real use other than hiding money and ownership.

That's not true at all. Corporations have tons of legitimate uses, including reducing liability.

>Shell corporations provide no real use

They also sell gasoline.

I've thought of checking that... Instead of Domains By Proxy LLC or whatever legally holding your account, setup an offshore shell corporation and use that to register my domains, becoming my own whoisguard in the process. It's going to be more expensive than these services, but the domains stay under your full control and you can keep your personal info private.

Sounds expensive, though.

I actually like Gandi for this reason. Registrars have gone down in the past, and I don't want to have any difficulty proving that I'm the owner if that happens.

Besides, my primary domain is my full name dot com, so anyone who has any interest in the domain already knows my name.

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