Finally NSI/Verisign seems to be on the ball - they are conducting survey
on privacy issues
QUOTE FROM VERISIGN PRIVATE SURVEY
When you currently register a domain name, the contact information that you
provide is made publicly available in an online database called WHOIS.
Marketers frequently query the WHOIS database systematically in order to
collect your contact information for the purpose of sending you unsolicited
marketing materials (i.e. SPAM).
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Consider a service that would mask your contact information in the WHOIS
database and instead provide this information in a more secure database that
would make it extremely difficult for marketers to access your contact
information.
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What is your level of interest in the service described above?
Extremely disinterested
Somewhat disinterested
Neither interested nor disinterested
Somewhat interested
Extremely interested
UNQUOTE VERISIGN PRIVATE SURVEY
I think this is a HOT HOT issue - offering privacy to clients is a great
value added feature
worth staying with a Registar who offers it.
cheers
Genie
eyeondomain.com
> > Unfortunately, according to ICANN mandate, all the information has to be
> > correct and verifiable - or you may lose the domain for compliance
> reasons.
> > Sad, but true.
>
> BUT I think I have heard somewhere on this list that ICANN permits
> Registrar
> to conceal customer's info, based on customer's preference. Then the
> Registrar would disclose it based on request (WHICH WOULD ELIMINATE
> 99% of domain related SPAM, since a spammer would find it too costly to
> retrieve
> customer's data one by one request per domain)
>
> I am actually considering this feature as an extremely valuable add-on to
> standard
> offering - many of our customers requested this feature.
>
> In the world of 8.95 retail domains we need to be able to stay on
forefront
> of
> innovation of value added services where it would make sense to our client
> to
> pay more in retail price in exchange for special features they cannot
obtain
> from
> a discounter. Most of us are web hosts and web designers, working hard
at
> low margins to attract domain customers who if served well by our customer
> service - would become our hosting clients when they are ready to start a
> new
> site - so something like BizLand spam to everyone of the folks who
> registered
> the domain with us and very undesirable to say the least.
>
> We are planning to implement the PRIVACY FEATURE where customer actually
> submits correct data, but if they choose privacy feature, their contact
info
> will be
> cloaked by our standard protection contact info, such as
> ORGANIZATION NAME: disclosed upon request at
www.webadress.com/contactlookup
> DITTO for the rest of the info
> Plus our email /phone contact
> (email cloaking prevents spam to the client, however at renewal time may
> generate
> bit of manual work to trigger reminders)
>
> The web address would then contain link to a database where anyone can
look
> up the actual info in exchange for providing THEIR info.
>
> The only thing that is stopping us from having it actually online is
> 'overworked-underpaid'
> syndrome as we need to program logistics of creating a local database,
> connecting
> it to OpenSRS plus the requirement of being able to communicate to the
> customer
> at renewal time via automated method....
>
> Anyhow... what do you Guys and Gals think? Is anyone willing to chip in
and
> then we
> can all share the code? Or perhaps OpenSRS development team can help? In
> my
> humble opinion a single feature such as this one will increase our sales,
> will promote
> customer retention, will separate us from the rest of the pack of the
domain
> sites, will
> protect us the resellers from most of the unwanted SPAM and will give
> customers the
> level of privacy they desire, not mentioning we will be offering something
> no one else (
> except very few sites).
>
> We heavily advertised .TV and .UK domains for past few months - our stats
> show an average
> of 10 .TV years registered per 1000 domain years total, UK sales are
> similar.... so in terms
> of us joining on other exotic domains such as .VC or .whatever - probably
> not... As programing time
> at OpenSRS is allocated to each new adventure, I would like to propose and
> perhaps hear
> fellow resellers feedback on this PRIVACY feature. I think protecting our
> customers's privacy
> would definitely bring in more revenues than 10 .TV years per 1000 years
> registered, give us
> some ADVERTISING messages to shout..... huh... I am repeating myself....
>
> Have a great holiday weekend everyone
>
> Cheers
> Genie Livingstone
> Magi Inc
> http://www.eyeondomain.com
>
>
