The Record reported that several members of the United States Congress are urging the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to do more to protect the privacy of domain registrations for the .us top-level domain (TLD). Consumers, including small businesses, who register a .us domain are not able to mask their contact information. The domain registrations publicly display names, physical addresses, phone numbers and emails to anyone without restriction. “The automatic public disclosure of users’ personal information puts them at enhanced risk for becoming victims of identity theft, spamming, spoofing, doxxing, online harassment, and even physical harm,” the lawmakers said in a letter to NTIA Assistant Secretary and Administrator Alan Davidson. The letter to the NTIA also included that “anonymity is a necessary component of the American right to free speech.”
Most U.S.-based TLDs include the feature to hide from public view the information you used to register a domain name. It is often an extra charge to enable the privacy, but it is worth the small annual charge. Unfortunately the .us domain TLD, which has been available since 2005, does not offer privacy protection. The lack of privacy for .us registrations is one of the reasons we always recommend choosing a .com top-level domain.
When privacy protection is enabled along with the domain registration, your personal information is hidden to everyone except the registrar – the company you registered the domain through. Thus we recommend only using accredited and well-known registrars like domain.com (full disclosure – we are a domain.com affiliate partner) so your registration of the domain is never lost. ICANN accredited registrars must keep domain registration contact information in escrow in case they cease operations. In the past unaccredited registrars have lost customers’ registrations for their domains. When an unaccredited registrar ceases to exist, businesses have had a very difficult process, and often fail, to recover their domain names. Without their domain name many modern businesses would almost certainly cease to exist as well.
There is no reason for domain registration information to be public and nothing good will come about because your personal details are shared with the world. So protect your organization, domain name, private information, and yourself by selecting a TLD that allows privacy protection. Additionally, only register your domain name with an accredited registrar.
If all this information about domain names seems complicated, do not worry, we can help. Email us at hello@oviedonetworks.com to ask about our services to protect you, your organization, and your domain name.
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