Poll: Is your whois contact info real?

Saves having to use all these pricey WHOIS privacy services. Businesses are still required to put address details up, but you don't have millions of people being obliged to shove their home addresses and phone numbers online.

(I voted "using a privacy service", although that service is simply the Nominet opt-out.)

Here's one way to do it. I cleared all this with my domain registrar before doing this (who said that this is fine as long as the contact for the domain can be reached) and you should, too.

  1. use your company name for the name of the contact
  2. use email aliases or catch-alls for the email contact
  3. use a free PTSN-to-VoIP number for the phone contact (I recommend Area775.com)
  4. use a mail receiving agent (like Earth Class Mail) for the physical address

Before I used the privacy service I used a P.O. Box for my address. I used my real cell phone number but I never really received any calls because of it, though my P.O. Box did get some junk mail related to domain names.

I recently registered some .us domains and you can't use a privacy service with those, so it currently has my real home address (might get a P.O. Box again). I use my Google Voice phone number which forwards to my cell phone, so at least I have some control if I start getting calls. I'm not concerned about my real name being attached to these sites as I am going to make that info public anyway (when I announced the sites from my personal blog which has my real name).

P.S. Yes, the information in my Hacker News profile is all genuine, and, yes, I don't mind all of you knowing that information. I sometimes check HN profiles if I want to know a person's basis for knowledge after I read a comment here on HN.

Now that domain proxy agents are being held liable for the actions of the originating registrants... I don't think proxy registrations are going to be a popular offering.

If you are truly concerned. Register an LLC, have it own the domain and get it's mail at some mail receiving station.

That way all the information is correct. But J. Random internet loser who decides to come after you because you said something mean about his living arrangements is going to wind up showing up at a strip mall someplace rather than on your doorstep.

EDIT: I actually like the idea that people put their real details on the DNS. Were it not for my job I would list it - but it's a bit too risky.

Fun fact: here in Canada if you have fake whois info they can take your .ca domain away!