Go Daddy's IDIOTIC change to not give free privacy will backfire

[angel69]

Go Daddy just went completely off the deep end, if that was even possible. A registrar this huge with somewhat questionable security should do all it can to help counter that, if it had a brain. I just learned one of the reasons why we've stuck w/them after so many aggravations, their free Domains by Proxy (privacy) service, has disappeared. Now you won't get free privacy if you reg/transfer 5+ names w/GD, you need to now pay $9.99/name which cannot be deactivated in case an auction service tells you to before listing your names, you remove it, you lose it, $9.99 down the drain.


Besides not disclosing personal info such as your email address on the WHOIS (where hackers will typically try to get into at 1st), their DBP service provided an extra layer of security some may not be aware of, the privacy (DBP) website is different from the GD site, and you need to remove privacy manually on that DBP site or names could not be moved out of GD. And wise users keep a different, hopefully complex password on both GD and DBP sites, changed regularly.


So, a thief would have to 1st get into your GD account, retrieve a code sent to your email address since he'd say he forgot the password, then get into your email acct as well, change the password, get in and initiate a transfer to another registrar (the codes are emailed to the most recent email address in the acct no matter how new). And assuming the name is not in the 60-day registrar lock, he'd still need to get into your Domains by Proxy account (that ideally has a different password) and delete privacy for the transfer out to happen. This made any valuable names you still had with GD most secure, almost comparable to Moniker, although not as secure as Fabulous with their 3 security questions feature all customers get to use for free.


I keep hearing domainers want to be found thru the WHOIS to sell, and new users of the WHOIS may not know they can still email sellers even when a DBP address was assigned to a private domain. I'd rather lose on a potentially good deal than risking having any scumbag with a web connection on the other side of the planet attempt to get into my GD and email accounts, and unless you have an account manager w/GD, you DO NOT qualify for their DTVS (Domain Transfer Verification Process, where the GD manager calls your cell # and asks for your verbal auth before any names can leave GD, and your cell # is NOT part of your customer info, it's kept separately).


Will anybody else move domains out of GD based on this ? I know how GD operates and money talks, they lose a portion of their domains due to this and they may decide to correct this misstep. I will not pay $9.99 for privacy since we have many average names there. Or $7.99, not even $6.99. They brought this on themselves and will now see the consequences. I'll go where I can find good security, decent support and free privacy, at least for new regs/trans. And I hope they don't get on their soap box and start talking about "more transparency" due to less domains being private, I've had more than a few "incidents" w/them I've never mentioned here, GD would certainly not want "transparency" applied to those.

 

[richface]

Great article but are you saying if privacy was free your domains will be safer? I did rather keep my gems at Moniker although you also have the option to upgrade your account at Godaddy for extra layer security. Plus if you domain is worth 100k, I am sure if privacy is really a concern then a couple of bucks should not make a difference. Godaddy is cheap as it is the issue here is security getting privacy for free will not solve this they need a robust system in place.

My opinion only.

 

[draggar]

eMail addresses: Use two. Use one with a good spam filter (gmail etc.) as the public WhoIs and then use a second one that you don't use for anything else as your registrar contact (you have domains - use one of them). (Yes, still a complex password helps). Just remember to change the email address when you reigster domains.

 

[Raider]

Where do you think all that money comes from to pay for Godaddy commercials? and Nascar, and Danica and all those beautiful women with big boobs?

If you don't want to pay for privacy protection and want to give your money to a Registrar that will invest it in better security as opposed to the above, the answer is "Fabulous"!

 

[angel69]

Richface, I may have phrased it wrong, I'd never say that "if privacy were free names at GD would be more secure", if privacy IS added (free on not) domains are infinitely safer if GD is the registrar, and safer in general w/ANY registrar. PRIVACY WHEN DEALING WITH GD DOES MAKE THEIR DOMAINS HIGHLY SECURE, whether you pay $0 or $9.99, that's my argument. You may also think I've been dumb enough to pay $9.99/name to get privacy, I have not, we manage to move names in bulk from a registrar to another to get free privacy, back and forth, a pain in the ass but we manage to pull that. I've never paid $9.99, but sometimes for valuable names we just acquired that can't be moved out for 60 days we have paid something, but there are always promos to get it for half that, even much less than that often..................Privacy makes domains more secure w/any registrar, the reasons are obvious, but w/GD and their set-up of a different site (DBP) w/a different password and not being able to move names out of GD unless you go to DBP and remove it manually, it does make it even more secure than any other privacy service. But $9.99 isn't just "expensive", or even "excessive", that's thievery. And it can't even be deactivated/activated again like others allow. When you're with Moniker you may not need privacy (or w/Fabulous) as they're secure by nature but I still want it for as many of my names as I can get..................How do I upgrade my GD acct to get an extra layer of security ? are you talking about an acct mgr ? they assigned me one and he wasn't up to speed on things. I already know about the Domain Trasfer Verification System (DTVS, when moving names out) I described in my 1st post, but I wasn't aware there was anything else an acct mgr could give you, what does yours give you exactly ? and yes, if I owned Platinum.com I would not mind paying $9.99 for privacy but not for cheap to average names.

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Draggar, thanks for the comment, it's right on, and we tried that. One email address for the GD acct and another one for the WHOIS (when a name has no privacy) But since we buy, transfer in, etc --or privacy expires on domains-- the moment that happens the WHOIS appears w/the email address we meant for GD only and not the one we wanted for the public, we had set it up the way we described but it doesn't work. We tried 2-3 times. So we have to manually alter the WHOIS for the new public names w/GD w/the other address, sometimes we forget, or we realize this too late and doing that triggers a new 60-day registrar lock, and yeah, we've used the email addresses of the domains themselves also. Security at GD is not the worst in the industry but there are a few things they haven't thought of, or they just don't care. They're "too big to care". I won't mention the security deficiencies here since scammers read these things.

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Raider, I agree about Fabulous, I'll go back/check prices again. Last time I tried to get an acct there I was told anybody could get one but in the appl itself the system demanded I list a sample of my portfolio when I was not applying for their monetization program in the 1st place (I knew I didn't qualify for that) all I wanted was a regular acct to keep names I bought where they were, but the appl would not get "sent" unless I filled out the portfolio question, so I mentioned 5 names. Their response ? That the appl (for a regular acct, not monetization) had been denied because my domains weren't good enough.That was deceiving even if they didn't intend to be. I would go to their site, prices displayed were low, I'd ask why I was being told regs/rens/trans were so expensive (up to $29.95 as per the quote I got by email) and they'd claim that to get low prices you needed to be in monetization, it was a misleading experience, maybe they were too disorganized at the time, their home front page should explicitly read "These prices are for monetization clients only".

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I'd never take an expensive name to GD planning to add privacy so it's as secure as Moniker, that reasoning is flawed, I leave the name w/Moniker. Name.com for example is the only registrar that has the VIP (Verisign) token that gives you a code or you can't sign in, that's secure, but the same argument holds, would you go to Name.com and pay for the Verisign chip membership just to make the domain as secure as Fabulous ? No. But I've tried a few registrars and GD gave me the most benefits for what I needed, wanted and paid for. Moniker is too expensive at $10+ for a .com, privacy is $4. They never answer me when I ask for lower prices. Name.com, Namecheap, Dynadot, Dotster are more expensive than GD. And they all charge for privacy, some a lot. Enom, NetSol, Fabulous ? who can pay that ? unless you're a reseller. If you could have free privacy (and security did not change if the name is private or not), would you take it ? I would. In fact, can somebody tell me one single advantage of making your info public in the WHOIS (besides noobs not knowing they can still email you to the privacy address) If domainers want to flaunt what they own they can publish a list here

 

[draggar]

Draggar, thanks for the comment, it's right on, and I've tried that. One email add for the GD acct and another one for the WHOIS (when a name has no privacy on it) But since we buy, transfer in, etc --or privacy expires on a domain-- the moment that happens the domain appears w/the email add we have for GD only and not the one we want for the public, we set it up the way we had just described before but it doesn't work. We tried 2-3 rimes. So, we have to manually alter the WHOIS info for the new public names w/GD w/the other address, and sometimes we forget, or we realize this too late and doing that would trigger a new 60-day registrar lock GD just loves customers to fall under, and yeah, we have used the email address of the domains themselves also. At least GD does allow extremely long passwords, that's one good thing......................The security at GD is far from excellent, it's not the worst in the industry, but there are a few things they haven't thought of, or maybe they just don't care. They have 50+ million domains and 65% of the new regs, avg 1 out of 3 domains in the world is w/GD. "Too big to care" I won't mention the security deficiencies here since scammers read these things.

I've never had that issue. I just make sure when I register a new domain or start a transfer of one in I manually change the email address from the registrar contact to the one I want out in the public eye. I've never had a domain transfer or account push that didn't work.

 

[Gerry]

Not sure how GD's policy will backfire...they remain the largest registrar and have held that title for years.

 

[Gerry]

eMail addresses: Use two. Use one with a good spam filter (gmail etc.) as the public WhoIs and then use a second one that you don't use for anything else as your registrar contact (you have domains - use one of them). (Yes, still a complex password helps). Just remember to change the email address when you reigster domains.

Yup, you can even have multiple addresses listed in Admin, Technical, and so on. SO any move you will get multiple contacts regarding a change. Can be a pain, but, if you use one name as a "catch all" all notices will fall into one email, even though will be addressed to different emails.

Also, for the sake of privacy, create an LLC, use that as contact info, and use a PO Box as the address.

All of this allows me to remain completely in control of my account(s), offers still come directly to me, but a veil of privacy is maintained thanks to the LLC name and the PO Box.

 

[Raider]

It's seems the larger a company is, the less they care about pleasing the customer, maybe this is why I shop at small stores and use small banks.

I tried Godaddy and didn't like it, aside from the overwhelming advertising they do, the site is flooded with services I would never use, and the interface? I've seen better. And the last time I used Godaddy's privacy protection, it SUCKED, not all my mail was NOT going through and I spent over a month with tech support trying to get it to work before I finally gave up.

Depending on how many domains you have, Fabulous has very competitive prices, And even if their not the lowest out there, the Free privacy protection they offer more than makes up for it... If you have CC TLD's then Fab might not be for you, Check what TLD's they offer before signing up... If you need a sign-up link, send me a PM.

 

[Theo]

What a huge and pointless rant.

If you're concerned about safety, WHOIS privacy does nothing of that short. Turn on 2 way authentication at GoDaddy and you're all set; every time you log in you'll be sent an SMS with a code in order to access your account.

If you want free privacy for the sake of, well, "privacy" then use Fabulous as Raider suggested.

 

[angel69]

Acro, when you find a "pointless" post like mine is to you, just move to another thread. Before criticizing smaller domainers or Hispanics who may not write in English as well as Greeks, keep in mind I wrote this in the Registrars section and not in the Gold Cafe. It was meant for people who use GD as their main registrar and find themselves affected by this sudden denial of privacy when they earlier qualified for it. It is also aimed at the GD reps who come here but hardly ever answer a question or attempt to resolve a problem. I want them to earn their pay and tell some of us who care why they're now denying us privacy. Draggar is one of the top 3 mods and he wrote 2 intelligent posts that went to the "point" you cannot see, many users will learn from his comments so he probably didn't find it as "pointless".


I've never seen or heard of any two-way authentication and I visit GD often. You're probably an Executive Client to them or one of their resellers. Some features are only available to those. I had an account manager who was useless, he mentioned DTVS for transfers-out which I already knew of. He never mentioned this feature you refer to but I'll ask.


As for the all-but-canonized Fabulous, go to their site but don't sign in. Check their prices, here's the link (below) you get if you're a visitor. "Retail" to them means people who don't qualify for their monetization program and as you can see the price for COM, NET, ORG and INFO is $29.95. Only NetSol charges prices this absurd. Since you have power on DNF and in domaining maybe you can get your Fabulous friends to charge me what you're paying. If they do I'll move a bunch of names there. I also have it in an email from them that I'd have to pay those "retail" prices. And it is precisely beacuse I've had problems with Moniker that the GD change affects me since I can't afford Fabulous. You may not get the point I was trying to convey since you say "WHOIS privacy does nothing of this sort" when it clearly does. And especially with GD for the reasons I outlined.


Raider, thanks for offering to help but before I apply again for a regular account w/Fabulous I need to get it in writing from them what prices they plan to charge me or I won't bother. And Richface, thanks for your input too.


http://fabulous.com/informationcenter/index.htm?formdata[qid]=1317<VAR id=yiv1758262059yui-ie-cursor></VAR>

What a huge and pointless rant.

If you're concerned about safety, WHOIS privacy does nothing of that short. Turn on 2 way authentication at GoDaddy and you're all set; every time you log in you'll be sent an SMS with a code in order to access your account.

If you want free privacy for the sake of, well, "privacy" then use Fabulous as Raider suggested.

 

[Theo]

Again, a pointless tirade, tossing in some absurd statements. I didn't criticize Hispanics, maybe you have an issue there, learned to play the race card at every given opportunity? I mean, WTF.

And if you haven't heard about the 2-way authentication at GoDaddy, it's there for everyone and no, I don't have an executive account.

Before *****ing some more, Fabulous has a special tiered program for domainers. Find the guy who runs the subforum here on DNF and message him with an application.

I'm tired of people wanting everything precut and cooked on a plate for them!

 

[Gerry]

Before criticizing smaller domainers or Hispanics...

Nothing to do with defending Acro...but where in the hell in post 10 do you see anything targeting Hispanics?

Did I target and criticize Hispanics because I countered with GD's position in domainland and expressing my doubts that GD's policy would backfire?

Draggar is ok with Hispanics in your book. Richface is ok, Raider is ok.

But because Acro lamblasted the thread for being pointless, he is anti-hispanic?

Your original post (aside from being long...like mine) gave me no hint of any language or grammar deficiencies.

You do realize (don't you?) that no one (an assumption) knew you were Hispanic until you mentioned it?

And does that make you anti-Greek because obviously you knew Acro was Greek and made it your cause to point that out in your rebuttal?

 

[Theo]

I don't know what some people eat for breakfast but I recommend more eggs and less sausage.

 

[Gerry]

I don't know what some people eat for breakfast but I recommend more eggs and less sausage.

If you are referring to pork sausage, that could be construed as anti-Islamic. And the true vegans are going to curse you mentioning eggs, those that swear off any product from anything that has eyes.

 

[Theo]

I was referring to my earlier comment about how domainers want things precut and cooked on a plate. So I suggested that they scramble more eggs and fry less sausage.

 

[richface]

Fair statement, but flipping heck you can talk for America. I will not sweat about it, This is why you always have the option to move. Personally I think Godaddy
is super generous on prices and they need to at least make some profit even if it is the largest Registrar it does not automatically mean they can always offer free soup.

In any event, security at Godaddy isn't as bad "IF you upgrade your account" as others have said you can have the transfer security in place additional passwords on your account for calls and extra, I know huge investors who keep super premium names at Godaddy, even domains like "America.com" property.com , dozens more are held at godaddy. Huge names in the business keep platinum domains at Godaddy BUT if you are really worried Moniker has the most secure system in my view.

As for the race thing please retract that statement non of my business but the fact that people criticize you is not personal you seem like a nice guy.

Richface, I may have phrased some things the wrong way, I'd never say "if privacy were free names at GD would be more secure" except in the sense that WHEN PRIVACY IS FREE, and you add it, then yes, they're infinitely safer if GD is the registrar. PRIVACY WHEN DEALING WITH GD DOES MAKE THE DOMAINS THERE HIGHLY SECURE, whether we pay $0 or $9.99 for it, and that's the crocks of my argument. You may also think I've been dumb enough to pay $9.99/name to get privacy, I have not, we manage to move names in bulk from a registrar to another to get free privacy, back and forth, a pain in the ass but we manage to pull that. I've never paid $9.99, but sometimes for names we just acquired that are valuable and can't be moved out of there for 60 days we have, but there are sometimes promos to get it for half that, even $3.53 a couple of times................ I believe privacy does make domains way more secure with any registrar and the reasons are obvious but with GD and the set-up of a different site (DBP) w/a different password and not being able to move names out of GD unless you go to DBP and remove it manually, it does make it EVEN more secure than any other privacy service w/other registrars. But $9.99 isn't just "expensive" or even "excessive", that is thievery. And it can't even be deactivated/activated again like Moniker and others allow. When you're with Moniker you may not need privacy (or w/Fabulous) as they're secure by nature but I still want it for as many of my names as I can get..................Richface, how do I upgrade my GD acct to get an extra layer of security ? are you talking about an acct mgr ? they assigned me one and I'm looking for another, he wasn't up to speed on many things. I already know about the trasfer verification system (when moving names out) I described in my 1st post here but I wasn't aware there was anything else an acct mgr could give you, what does yours give you exactly ? and yes, if I owned Platinum.com I would not mind paying $9.99 for privacy, and we may for our very best names except they're already at Moniker w/$4 privacy.

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I'd never take an expensive name to GD planning to add privacy to it so it's as secure as Moniker, that reasoning is flawed, I leave the name w/Moniker simply. Name.com for example is the only registrar that has the VIP (Verisign) token that gives you a code or you can't sign in, that's secure, but the same argument holds, would you go to Name.com (some call it "lame Name" for some reason) and pay for the Verisign chip membership just to make the domain as secure as Fabulous ? NO. But I've tried many registrars and GD gave me the most benefits for what I needed, wanted and paid for. Moniker is too expensive plus privacy is $4. Name.com, Namecheap, Dynadot are more expensive than GD as well, so are Dotster and others well-known. And they all charge for privacy, some a lot. And Enom, NetSol, Fabulous ? please, you gotta be a millionaire, or a reseller, to get decent prices.......................... If you could have free privacy (and security did not change if the name were private or not), would you take it ? I would. In fact, can somebody tell me one single advantage of making your info public on the WHOIS (besides noobs not knowing they can still email you to the privacy address) If domainers want to flaunt what they own then publish a list here and other places. I'd never boast about owning a name even if I had a $100K domain. It's not me. What I own, buy and sell is my own biz UNLESS I take the initiative and make it public, some domainers enjoy that, good for them. It's not even a security concern, if I had the choice --and security were not a factor-- I would NOT reveal I own a name. I hate that.

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Draggar, thanks for the comment, it's right on, and I've tried that. One email add for the GD acct and another one for the WHOIS (when a name has no privacy) But since we buy, transfer in, etc --or privacy expires on domains-- the moment that happens the WHOIS appears w/the email add we have for GD only, and not the one we wanted for the public, we had set it up the way we described before but it doesn't work. We tried 2-3 rimes. So, we have to manually alter the WHOIS for the new public names w/GD w/the other address, sometimes we forget, or we realize this too late and doing that triggers a new 60-day registrar lock GD just loves customers to fall under, and yeah, we've used the email addresses of the domains themselves also. At least GD does allow extremely long passwords, that's one good thing......................The security at GD is far from excellent, it's not the worst in the industry, but there are a few things they haven't thought of, or maybe they just don't care. They have 50+ million domains and 66% of new regs are done thru GD, avg 1 out of 3 domains in the world is w/GD. "Too big to care" I won't mention the security deficiencies here since scammers read these things.

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Raider, I agree about Fabulous and I'll go back check prices, maybe they've gone down. Last time I tried to get an acct there I was told anybody could get one but in the appl itself the system demanded I list a sample of my portfolio when I was not applying for their monetization program (I knew I didn't qualify for that), all I wanted was a regular acct to go claim names I won at auctions, since the appl would not get "sent" unless I filled out the portfolio question I mentioned 5 of my names. Their response ? That the appl (FOR A REGULAR ACCT, not a monetization program) had been denied because my domains (the 5 I listed) were not good enough........................ That co is deceiving even if they don't intend to be. When I used to go to their site prices displayed were really low, when I asked why I was being told regs/rens/trans were so expensive in reality ($19-$29 as per the quote I got by email) they claimed that to get low prices you needed to be in the monetization program WHICH I NEVER APPLIED FOR to begin with, that pissed me off, it was a misleading experience or they were too disorganized at the time, the whole thing made no sense to me, I never went back, but thanks for the tip, I'll go back see if they let me open a common acct w/o monetization if the prices are low enough, I can't afford the ones I was quoted nor would I ever pay that unless I owned Gold.com.

 

[katherine]

The way I see it, this is one more reason to ditch go.daddy.

 

[Raider]

Raider, thanks for offering to help but before I apply again for a regular account w/Fabulous I need to get it in writing from them what prices they plan to charge me or I won't bother.

If this is not good enough for you, then please don't bother.

Whois Privacy Services

Did you know that when you own a domain name, your personal information is publicly available to anyone who wants to see it? Your name, address, email address and phone number are all displayed when a WHOIS lookup is performed on your domain.

ICANN, the international governing body for domain names, requires every Domain Registrar to maintain a publicly accessible "WHOIS" database displaying contact information for all domain names registered.

The good news is, Fabulous.com, in partnership with Whois Privacy Services Pty Ltd (http://www.whoisprivacyservices.com.au) is now offering a Whois Privacy option FREE to all domains registered with Fabulous.com.

By enabling this feature on your domains you can protect against:

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TLD PRICING

 

[dcristo]

I don't know what some people eat for breakfast but I recommend more eggs and less sausage.

I think the ladies would disagree.