OWNERS OF WEBSITES AND DOMAIN NAMES need to be aware that their personal security may be at risk, simply because they didn’t ask for ‘Privacy‘ upon domain registration.

ADDING ‘PRIVACY’ TO DOMAINS helps keep personal information away from ‘prying eyes’. When you register a domain name, unless you opt for ‘Privacy‘ (usually a few dollars extra per year), your contact details are made public and available to anyone who does a ‘whois’ domain name query.

Scammers can see not only a domain owners name, address and email, but also the domain’s expiry date unless it is renewed. This gives them a great opportunity to scam you into not only paying a high renewal price (to them and not the domain registrar) but giving them your credit card details too.

HOW TO SEE WHAT IS SHOWN TO THE PUBLIC. Check first what information is being displayed by performing a ‘WhoIs’ yourself by using one of the many free services available for this e.g. http://cqcounter.com/whois/; or do a search on Google or Yahoo for whois. Enter your domain name in the box and see what comes up.

If your personal details appear, you might want to add Privacy for that domain name. Log in to your account with Spry, GoDaddy, Netfirms, ENOM etc and look for domain management options. Once you add Privacy, then only the host name or ‘proxy owner’ details are published – not your personal information. It usually costs less than $10 per year extra, and in my opinion is money well spent.

Also check that your domains remain Locked (only you can sell or transfer the name from the host server). This is a free service offered by all registration agencies. You can switch it on and off at will.

Before your domain expires, you will probably receive reminders by email directly from the registration agency and possibly from the host you are using if the domain has not also been registered through them.

Renew your domains before they expire through the domain registration agency you originally signed up with and where you will be required to log into your user account.

If you have lost the details, check your email archive for the confirmation information or you can ask for a new password to be sent to the email address you used for signing up.

BE EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS before responding to an email request to renew one of your domain names. Check that it is not from an unknown third party such as ISP Renewal Reminder which is a scam. They ask for a payment of $79.95 and your credit card details. You have been warned!

Many companies and individuals are happy for their domain name details to appear in public as it gives them and their sites credibility, adding to user (and possibly customer) confidence, but there are security issues that should also be taken into consideration.

You need to decide what is best for you as a domain name owner: Public disclosure or Privacy.