Gandi helps guard your privacy
By Ryan on Tuesday 8 July 2008, 16:55 - Gandi - Permalink
Until now we have provided you with an anti-spam email address that helps protect you from the result of the publication of your real email address in the public Whois database. We have also vowed to never resell any of your information to a third party.
Today, Gandi now gives individuals the possibility of private domain registration for domains in COM, NET, ORG, INFO, BIZ, NAME, TV and CC, that completely hides your street address, email, telephone and fax number.
To see what this looks like in detail, I invite you to view its presentation page at http://www.gandi.net/domain/whois
This service is free of charge and is made via your account management page. It requires just the acceptance of the Annex to the General Terms and Conditions of Domain Name Registration which you can read at https://www.gandi.net/contracts/en/whois/pdf/
Activation of this service in no way exonerates you from providing complete, exact and reliable contact information. Indeed, in the event of a verification either by Gandi or the registry, the non-disclosure of your current, full and accurate contact information can lead to the suspension or deletion of domain names managed under that handle. Also, this service is not one of providing an alternative contact address, of anonymity, or a forwarding of messages. There will therefore not be any forwarding of letters, messages or documents from people that try to reach you at our address.
This is therefore not a service just for convenience, but one that we provide for you as a way to help protect your privacy. The fact that it is free should also assure you that this offering is not just to make more money: is it a present from Gandi?
Finally, I would like to remind you that for the majority of European countries, individuals are already fully protected, as is true with .FR, or partially protected as with .EU (only the e-mail address is displayed).
To see what this looks like in detail, I invite you to view its presentation page at http://www.gandi.net/domain/whois
This service is free of charge and is made via your account management page. It requires just the acceptance of the Annex to the General Terms and Conditions of Domain Name Registration which you can read at https://www.gandi.net/contracts/en/whois/pdf/
Activation of this service in no way exonerates you from providing complete, exact and reliable contact information. Indeed, in the event of a verification either by Gandi or the registry, the non-disclosure of your current, full and accurate contact information can lead to the suspension or deletion of domain names managed under that handle. Also, this service is not one of providing an alternative contact address, of anonymity, or a forwarding of messages. There will therefore not be any forwarding of letters, messages or documents from people that try to reach you at our address.
This is therefore not a service just for convenience, but one that we provide for you as a way to help protect your privacy. The fact that it is free should also assure you that this offering is not just to make more money: is it a present from Gandi?
Finally, I would like to remind you that for the majority of European countries, individuals are already fully protected, as is true with .FR, or partially protected as with .EU (only the e-mail address is displayed).
Comments
This is fantastic news. Your explanation is great, and as always you address the major questions and concerns. Keep up the excellent work!
Great! Was looking forward to this addition.
Great! HOW do I do it???????? Please provide where and how this can be accomplished, I've looked and can't see it.
Hi dee, if you login to gandi then go to update your personal details, the option is available as a radio button at the bottom of your details, next to the other privacy policy selections. I hope that helps, Joe
Great!
I love this!
Keep up the excellent work!
Perfect timing! I wanted to register a domain, and I liked Gandi based on what I'd seen, but I had planned to go with DynDNS because they provide a privacy service for whois information.
However, the terms of service for Gandi's whois privacy service raise a few questions. Most notably, they seem to say that Gandi will provide the private contact information to "any third party that requests it". That seems like a fairly useless privacy service. I would hope for something that only discloses the private contact information in the event of a court order.
DynDNS's "Secret Registration" doesn't go quite that far, but it does say they will only disclose the private information when "(a) required to do so by law; (b) necessary to comply with any legal process served on DynDNS; (c) DynDNS, in good faith, believes that law requires it to make such a disclosure; and/or (d) deemed necessary by DynDNS to protect its rights in connection with any claims between DynDNS and You and/or any third party concerning this Agreement;". That seems like a significant improvement over Gandi's service offering to give the information to anyone who asks.
Awesome! I was hoping that Gandi would offer this service.
I do have one question though- would you notify us if someone requests our contact information?
@Dee: note that this service is only applicable to accounts that are created for "individuals". If you have a "company", "reseller", or "association" account for example, this cannot be activated.
@Anonymous: We need to be sure that we continue to adhere to ICANN rules and regulations, though also those of the registries which are *very* clear on this - that the registration information for a domain name *must* be provided when requested. This is imposed on all ICANN accredited registrars - it is then up to the registrar to either play by the rules or not - and as you know, Gandi takes pride in our ethical, honest, and transparent way of doing things.
With regards to the contract, a major difference is that in our contract, we choose to say it plainly, and simply to avoid any possible unwelcome surprises. To this effect, condition "d" that you provided, allows them to do the same, though it is not stated as clearly, so can lead to a false sense of security - in fact, you do not know for sure where you stand with their contract.
@Ryan: I do appreciate Gandi making its position clear up front. However, as far as I can tell the ICANN and registrar rules only require providing contact information that reaches the domain owner; that doesn't necessarily mean the private contact information of the domain owner. For example, the phone number and email address provided by DynDNS's "Secret Registration" simply lead to an automated message saying to use http://secretregistration.com to contact the domain owner.
If Gandi believes that the ICANN or registrar rules require providing the private contact information of the domain owner, and not merely contact information which reaches the domain owner, then could you please point to a copy of those rules and point out where they make such a requirement?
In any case, the wording in the Gandi policy seems to suggest that if any random person emailed Gandi and said "could I please have the private whois information for example.org", you'd just send it to them without question. Does that accurately describe your policy?
@Anonymous: Your questions are very interesting and are an excellent opening to a healthy discussion on internet privacy and the legal obligations of domain name owners and registrars! Note however, that while we are totally open and transparent in this dialogue, you have chosen to remain secretive in your communication. Indeed, in the spirit of Gandi and the Gandi Bar (and as we have indicated beneath the comment field), we invite you to please let us know who it is that we are speaking with, so that this discussion can continue to be beneficial to everyone.
Because we are proud of the way we have chosen to combine privacy with our role as a responsible registrar,
I invite everyone to check out our Whois privacy policy at: http://www.gandi.net/contracts/en/w... As are all Gandi contracts, you will find that the language that we use is clear, transparent and professional.