What Is WhoisGuard ?
WhoisGuard is an addon service that domain registrars provide to hide your personal information from appearing on the WHOIS directory; rather, it is replaced by WhoisGuard’s basic contact information.
Let’s have a glimpse of what WhoisGuard precisely is:
Every day domain owner’s information is harvested by spammers from publicly available WHOIS to send spam. WhoisGuard avoids these issues by placing domain owner’s information in WHOIS and by providing an option to redirect the emails to the customer’s registered email address.
During the process of transferring the email, when the email content is scanned for junk email and regular email, thus only the relevant emails are delivered.
WhoisGuard protection is available as an addon to domain registration with their partner registrars.
How Does WhoisGuard Work?
You’d be thinking how WhoisGuard manages to hide your personal information from WHOIS lookup and keep your domain running at the same time, right? The process is quite clear and straightforward like any other domain privacy protection service.
They will simply put their own contact details on your domain’s WHOIS lookup results, hiding all traces of your private data. That way WhoisGuard ensures your domain stays compliant with ICANN accreditation norms, while also safeguarding your data from spamming.
Here’s an example to help you understand:
WhoisGuard displays the person’s data on the public WHOIS directory along with their contact information and email. However, when someone contacts you through their email, they will forward it to your registered email address after checking for possible cyber threats or spam. This is also known as “masking” your private information from being accessed publicly.
Do I Need WhoisGuard?
ICANN makes it mandatory for everyone who owns and administers a domain to provide their contact details, including phone number, email address, and mail address while registering a domain.
Anyone who owns a website, regardless of an individual, a business owner, or an organization is required to provide precise identification information at the time of domain registration. That means ICANN wants your personal information to be made available publicly on the WHOIS database.
The critical aspect about this is that only by knowing your domain name, anyone can look up the WHOIS search tool, available for free on the web, to retrieve your personal information. To prevent this, domain privacy is the only solution. With WhoisGuard, your confidential data is masked.
Pros & Cons Of WhoisGuard
The Pros and Cons of WhoisGuard in detail:
Pros:
- Safeguard Your Personal Details: Identity theft is one of the biggest cybercrimes today. Think about the amount of data you need to reveal while registering a domain!
This is enough information for any con expert, a spammer, or a cybercriminal to wreak serious havoc on you and your business. WhoisGuard helps to mask this information, protecting it from getting into the wrong hands.
- Reduce Spamming: Using WhoisGuard privacy is one of the best ways to cut down on unsolicited and spammy emails. Your domain registrar will provide alias contact information in place of yours within the WHOIS directory, thereby, minimizing the chances of getting phishing emails. Be assured such spammy and phishing emails will not reach your email directly if you have domain privacy protection.
- Prevent unwanted marketing outreach: When you provide your contact details along with your domain name publicly, it will unsurprisingly invite uncalled attention from telemarketers, spammers, salespeople and con experts. It will not take long when you start to get calls and emails about online marketing, shopping, SEO, and more.
Cons:
- Makes Your Business Appear Suspicious: Another limitation of WhoisGuard protection is that it makes the business look suspicious to your potential customers.
When they want to buy products and services from your site, they will do background research to get more information about your business. When your information is not readily available to them, it will make doubt about the authenticity of your business.
Where Can I Get WhoisGuard Privacy Protection?
WhoisGuard privacy protection is provided by Namecheap, an ICANN-accredited domain name registrar, and web hosting company. It has over 10 million domains and 11 million registered users globally.
It is mostly considered for its economical plans, excellent customer support, and security guarantee. Therefore, Namecheap now offers lifetime free WhoisGuard privacy protection for everyone.
Conclusion: Is WhoisGuard Worth It?
So, is WhoisGuard worth it? Definitely, it is! If you prioritize domain privacy and want to protect your personal information from being accessed by the public at large, then you must have WhoisGuard. It prevents unsolicited and spammy marketing emails and potential cyber threats like domain hijacking.
