Author: Dan Storbaek / Source: The Next Web
“GoDaddy cares about your privacy. For this reason, we collect and use personal data only as it might be needed for us to deliver to you our world-class products, services, websites, and mobile applications.”
The above is a direct quote from GoDaddy’s privacy policy, and a fair statement to make in terms of the use of your personal data.
That is, until you register a domain with the company.Wherever it is you’re situated, GoDaddy asks for users to pay for privacy protection. With privacy being a fundamental right to us all, it seems distasteful that a large domain registrar would charge a fee for this.
With the recent introduction of GDPR – and the upcoming CCPA law in California – I wanted to take a deeper look at GoDaddy’s business practices regarding data privacy and protection.
Paying for WHOIS protection
Depending on your location, GoDaddy may encourage the sale of WHOIS protection. This, essentially translates to you paying for the protection of your privacy.
For those located outside of the EU without WHOIS protection, it could result in personal data being made publicly available on the WHOIS database.
It seems as though, for European customers, privacy rights are better enforced. If you order from the UK or any other EU country, you are not required to pay to make your data private in the WHOIS database.
This is included in the Basic Privacy Protection plan that GoDaddy offer. If you order from the US or any other non-European country in the world, GoDaddy will, by default, encourage you to pay a fee to make your personal data private. If you select ‘No Thanks’, you will have your personal data made publicly available on the WHOIS database.
However, since the protection of personal data is only included for EU users, I assume that GoDaddy follows a minimally viable privacy program, prioritizing commercial interest over basic privacy rights of international users.
For instance, GoDaddy chooses to pre-select ‘Full Domain Privacy & Protection’ to EU users, whilst the ‘Basic Privacy Protection’ option is enough to ensure your personal data is kept private in the WHOIS database. Surely, a pre-selected ‘No thanks’ would be sufficient enough?
What is WHOIS and why is it important?
WHOIS may look like an acronym, but it is actually a collection of information that relates to the owner of a domain. This information includes the owner’s full name, email address, physical address, phone number, and administrative and technical contacts.
All of this personal information is made publicly available for the world to see, including identity thieves, spammers and more threats.
If you do not wish to have this information readily available, registrars can hide this for a fee. This works by replacing your personal information with information about their company.
Should we hide WHOIS information?
To ensure the safety and protection of personal data, many domain owners decide to keep their WHOIS information hidden. Some reasons include:
- Protecting your Identity
Anybody with an internet connection will be able to access your personal data, including your name, address, email address, and phone number. It makes sense to protect this information in order to avoid personal data abuse and identity theft.
- Hiding your Location
If you are running an eCommerce store from your home, you may experience customers appearing at your door or calling you at your private phone number. Whether they were unhappy by your products or they wanted to check out “the brick and mortar store” that actually doesn’t exist, it is not a pleasant experience.
- Avoiding Unwanted Offers
Domain flippers (people who buy and sell domains) use the WHOIS databases to pick on domain names they would be interested in buying. By keeping your contact information hidden, you can prevent persistent unwanted…
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