Update for November 2nd, 2009:
Well after a receiving a note from James C. today mentioning BlueHost has again changed their policy on the domain privacy offerings, I decided to stop over at the BlueHost website and check it out for myself. After looking at the product breakdown I noticed that domain privacy was yet again marked as included, as it previously was before my July 21st post below. Seeing this certainly put a smile on my face but I was still unsure just how far this carried over since the domains on my account did not reflect this same change. Opening up a quick Live Chat window had my questions answered in less than 2 minutes (unheard of with my experience elsewhere). The response I got as to what domains the free privacy did, and did not, apply to was this: » Read the Rest
Since domain privacy seems to be the hot topic on everyone’s minds I decided that maybe it was time to delve a bit deeper. This time though I am going to focus a bit more on the personal level versus the business level. First, just to make sure everyone is up to speed on things, here is a quick breakdown on domain privacy. When you purchase a domain name, your information will be made “publicly available to allow rapid resolution of technical problems and to permit enforcement of consumer protection, trademark, and other laws” (http://www.icann.org/en/faq/#whois). This is where the term WHOIS comes into play. WHOIS is a query against a database of publicly available information maintained by each of the registrars. This is where your information is stored and displayed to anyone who runs a WHOIS query against your domain. This information typically includes your name, address, phone number, and email address. In order to remain not only ICANN compliant, but also compliant with any agreements you have with your registrar when you purchased the domain, this information is supposed to be kept up to date and accurate at all times. » Read the Rest
When talking about domain privacy, also known as private registration, I think the Wikipedia page sums it up quite well:
Domain privacy is a service offered by a number of domain name registrars. A user buys privacy from the company, who in turn replaces the user’s info in the WHOIS with the info of a forwarding service (for email and sometimes postal mail, done by a Proxy server) such as “Domains by Proxy, Inc.” or eNom’s “Whois Privacy Protection Service”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_privacy
» Read the Rest