If you own a domain name, your information is at risk
When registering a domain, remember how you were asked for your name, e-mail address, contact information, and other personal details? All this information is for the public to look up with a simple search. By performing a WHOIS on your domain name, your information is shown. Try using this neat site, http://www.whois.sc/ and type in a domain name such as myspace.com.
Look at what it returns:
Registrant:
MySpace, Inc.
6060 Center Drive
Suite 300
Los Angeles, CA 90045 US Domain Name: MYSPACE.COM
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:DNS Admin, Myspace
Fox Group Legal
Intellectual Property Department
PO Box 900
Beverly Hills, CA 90213
310-369-1000Record expires on 23-Feb-2013.
Record created on 22-Feb-1996.
Database last updated on 3-Mar-2008 03:35:49 EST.As you can see, their address and phone number are displayed. Fortunately, you can protect and hide your information. Many domain name registrars offer something called “WHOIS Protection” which will protect your information and even set up free E-mail forwarding. Domain registrars charge as little as $1.99 or as much as an extra $10. Some even offer this protection for free, such as NameCheap.
You might just think you can set your domain name to fake contact information, however, this does violate ICANN’s rules and could have your domain forcefully shut off.