Did you know that your name, email, and phone number are made publically available within the WhoIs database when you register any domain name? Any spammers, solicitors and other prying eyes can find your personal information online, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
John Smith Productions
John Smith
12 Main St
Hollister, CA 95023
United States
(555) 555-1234
johnsmith@jsmithprod.com
Your information is visible to the public!
Whois Privacy Protection Service.
Whois Agent
PMB 368, 14150 NE 20th St - F1
C/O johnsmithprod.com
Bellevue, WA 98007
United States
(425) 274-0657
gmvjcxkxh@whoisprivacyprotect.com
Without ID Protect, spammers can obtain your email and contact information and then use it for spamming purposes and redistribution to marketing firms. Your email address can stay on file with various spammers and marketing firms for years. Check out the difference between an unprotected and protected domain registration.
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Due to eNom's dynamic email system, your visible email address is constantly changing, so while it is being harvested and redistributed, it will change and the previous address will no longer work for the spammer. The Domain Privacy Protection Service (an affiliate of eNom.com) secures and maintains your real email address on file so you receive important information regarding your domain.
You have the ability to temporarily disable the ID Protect service through your domain control panel. Turn off the service and then ask the verifying party to confirm whois registration details at http://www.enom.com/domains/whois.asp. Once complete, you may turn the ID Protect service back on through your domain control panel.
For communications received which does not appear to be unsolicited commercial mail, The Domain Privacy Protection Service (an affiliate of eNom.com) may either forward such communication to you or may attempt to communicate to you a scanned copy of a page of the communication. The Service may elect to not forward to you communications which appear to be unsolicited, or communications which appear to be from your having used the IDP Services as a general mail forwarding service.
.US has made a dramatic change in their policy saying (in part):
"The United States Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration ("NTIA") has recently completed its review of "proxy" or anonymous domain registration services by .us Accredited Registrars. At the conclusion of this review, NTIA directed NeuStar to phase out the offering of such services by Registrars or by any of its partners or resellers and to ensure that complete and accurate WHOIS data is provided for any existing registrations in .us."
Although we disagree with this policy, we will comply and will require our resellers and sub-resellers to make the necessary changes. Therefore, we will prohibit the offering of eNom's ID Protect or similar services to .US registrations. This policy ONLY applies to .US registrations.
The service will continue to be provided for existing .US ID protect customers until their ID protect expiration date or January 26, 2006, whichever comes first.