So far we have always been talking about how good is anonymous domain registration. And many people might think that this is the only viable option. But is this really so? Should everybody use only this kind of domain registration or are there any cons?
When anonymous registration is a red flag?
When you are a customer you want to know whom you are dealing with. Let’s say you want to make a deal on the Internet and the company you want to cooperate with has its domain covered by privacy protection. This should rise questions in your head. Why company which, for example, sells something publicly or offers some services would want to hide their company information?
Many times con-artists will use anonymous domain registrations to defraud their customers and disappear. These domains do not live long, but you might be unlucky to be among the first.
In the same time, if you run a company and you care about your customers experience, you might want them to be able to reach you even if they cannot find “Contact us” page on your website and prefer to send emails to address specified in the domain WhoIs.
But what if you really need protection of your identity registering your domain? What pitfalls can await you?
To trust or not to trust
The main advantage of anonymous domain registration is that your identity is hidden. But it can only be hidden completely when you do not share your personal information during registration. And this means the domain is registered to a third-party. And at this point this becomes the main danger.
In other words, if the registrar is untruthful and suddenly disappears, close the business or just decides to grab your domain name, you have no proof or legal rights of domain ownership. It’s a double-edged sword. It can protect your identity but can also damage your business in case you choose the wrong provider.
Make sure when you select your anonymous domain registrar, you pay attention to the history of this provider because it really does not make sense to save $5 now and lose thousands after.
Conclusion
We have been around for over 10 years and saw businesses to come and go. We saw people who were not able to transfer their domains from other providers because of “some policies” and we saw companies shut down in a day and taking hundreds of clients domains with them.
Anonymous domain registration is not about saving few dollars, it’s about choosing the most secure provider and entrusting it your business and sometimes identity. You should save on this.
