Public domain registration vs. Private domain registration

From the early days of the domain name gold rush to the present 2007, shows that there are presently around 85 million domain names registered and nearly all of them are public. What does this mean to domain owners?

When you register a public domain name ALL of your personal information you provided during your domain registration can now be accessed by anyone! How is this possible? When someone performs a simple “Whois” search on your domain, it’s that easy!

There are many “whois” providers on the web, just do a simple “whois” search on Yahoo or MSN and you will see the message. Why is this so bad? All spammers and scammers know this and are constantly searching domain records to find your name, phone number, address and email, including your physical address! This is where a lot of the spam comes from. The Internet has very few regulations & standards for protecting your personal information. This has created loop holes in the domain system for the bad guys who are waiting for you to register a public domain. These scammers use sophisticated software to find your personal information and they are not going away anytime soon.

So, what can domain owners do about this flaw in the domain name registration system?
Private registration services, also referred to as privacy domain is one of the best solution available today. What does this mean? A private domain registration hides your personal information from the public “Whois database”, thus preventing anyone from seeing your personal information each time a search is done on your domain. Your information is SAFE and is replaced by your registrar's information. Only you as the owner of the domain can access the records. Now that is great news for all domain owners. However, some people think private registrations will allow spammer and scammers to hide and do business on the net. This is not true. If someone is doing bad business through a private domain their accounts will be canceled by their registrar and it will be made public.

Example of Public domain registration vs. Private domain registration

PUBLIC DOMAIN WHOIS INFO

PRIVATE DOMAIN WHOIS INFO

Registrant:
   Your Name
   1234 D Street
   City, State 56789

   Registered by: www.dynonames.com
   Domain Name: Your--Domain.com
   Created on: 15-Oct-06
   Expires on: 15-Oct-07
   Last Updated on: 17-Oct-06

Administrative Contact:
  Your Name
yourname@Your--Domain.com
1234 D Street
  City, State 56789
  (123) your-phone#

Technical Contact:
  Your Name
  yourname@Your--Domain.com
1234 D Street
  City, State 56789
  (123) your-phone#

Registrant:
  Private registration co info is here.
  56789 SomeWay
  City, State 12345

  Registered by: www.dynonames.com
  Domain Name: Your--Domain.com
  Created on: 15-Oct-06
  Expires on: 15-Oct-07
  Last Updated on: 17-Oct-06

Administrative Contact:
  Private registration co info is here.
  Private@ Private--registration.com
  56789 SomeWay
  City, State 12345
  (123) 123-4567

Technical Contact:
  Private registration co info is here.
  Private@ Private--registration.com
  56789 SomeWay
  City, State 12345
  (123) 123-4567

The example above shows that private registration is the clear winner over public registration. Another big benefit with private doman registration is that they can be applied to most existing public domain extensions.

Conclusion:
As the internet grows so will the spammers and scammers! Domain registration will most likely double in the next 10 years to 170 million domains. It’s a sure bet that private domain registration will become more and more popular as the internet grows.

Author: DynoNames Date: 01/10/07
Source: Dynonames.Com: Private Domain Registration