Almost 1.9 billion records containing personal data have been compromised between January 2017 and March 2018. 75% of information breaches occur due to external hackers and data attackers. The average expense of a single data breach can be as high as $3.62 million.
Seeing how harmful information breaches can be, you need to take domain personal privacy security seriously.
What Is Domain Privacy Protection?
When you register a domain name, your individual information is saved in an openly offered database called WHOIS. Domain privacy defense is essentially an add-on service you buy to safeguard your individual data and keep it concealed from the remainder of the world.
If you decide not to buy domain privacy protection, you're essentially picking to expose your personal details on the WHOIS public database, which means anyone can see your contact details (presuming you're the domain registrant). This consists of the domain registrant's e-mail address, contact number, mailing address, name, and any other information needed to legally sign up a domain name.
WHOIS is a public directory that keeps a record of all domain registrations online. This includes domain registrant details, confirmations, their expiry, renewal dates, and more.
It's similar to how any possession you own is signed up under a governing authority or register. Think of your vehicle or your home - you would've registered it under a governing authority which records ownership, its start date, and period.
You can trace the ownership of any domain on the internet using the WHOIS lookup feature. In the following screenshot, we browse the domain registrant details for 'nike.com'.
Listed below, we can see who the domain registrar is, when the registration ends, and when it was last upgraded.
Scrolling further down, we can see the registrant's name, which city they're located in, and can even access their contact number and email address.
Now, for a large company like Nike, it's not a big deal to make this details available publicly. However, if you're a small company owner, you need to be mindful with the available information about your service, where it's offered, and why.
How Can You Get Domain Privacy Protection
You can get domain privacy defense during the process of registering a new domain with your domain registrar (or your hosting provider). They generally offer it as an extra function, usually priced in between $2 and $20 a year. In terms of the extent of the danger it might cause, that's a small price to pay.
Do you really need domain personal privacy security? Let's take a look at reasons it makes sense to get it.
Why Do You Need Domain Privacy Protection
If you don't mask your personal information with domain privacy defense, there's a lot that can go wrong. In order to understand the true value of domain personal privacy defense, you should know what could happen.
# 1: Your individual data can be accessed by anybody
If your private information is readily available on the WHOIS public directory, just about ANYONE can access it. This includes individuals you don't want to expose yourself to, like hackers, competitors, and anyone else with bad intentions.
This is a massive risk, especially if you're in the middle of inventing a new concept, or constructing a website for a project you'd like to keep in stealth mode, or if you simply do not want individuals to understand who you are!
By not getting privacy protection, your personal information can get hacked and expose you to identity theft. What's worse, if your website is hacked, your customers' information can get jeopardized together with it, and you run the risk of losing the trust you've built with them over time in an instant.
An issue like that can easily ruin a small company.
# 2: You might get bombarded with undesirable sales calls, and even get scammed
If your personal details are out there for the world to see, there's absolutely nothing stopping aggressive marketers out there from acquiring your details and attempting to reach you. You could get a ton of calls from anybody who wishes to sell something.
On top of that, you risk getting scammed. If these sales folks understand your information, they could potentially fraud you into purchasing things you don't need.
# 3: Your website and other online possessions can get hacked
Your site required time to build. If it's not totally protected, there's a chance it might fall victim to a fraudulent domain transfer - someone else might get into your domain control board and move your site to their name, without your authorization.
Domain privacy defense shields you from these types of threats by masking critically secret information. It's like leaving your home open for strangers to come to take a look at who's inside it. If you tend to keep your home locked to protect yourself and your household, it makes sense to secure your domain from complete strangers and hackers on the web.
# 4: Your individual information can be sold
Other companies take part in something called 'information scraping' to collect personal information from openly readily available sources like WHOIS in order to offer it to 3rd parties.
Perhaps the current, most relevant example is the allegations versus Facebook for offering individual information to advertisers.
This is not some minor issue that can be overlooked - you should always pay attention to your cybersecurity.
# 5: You will get a ton of spam e-mails
Sales calls aren't the only thing you can get. It's also the ton of spam e-mails you open yourself approximately by leaving your individual information exposed. Every spammer out there knows how to discover individual data on public directory sites, and email is the easiest channel to target small business owners.
Are you already receiving lots of spam you haven't subscribed to? Take a look at your spam inbox and count the amount e-mails you get, and from where. It's since your details are lying exposed for spammers to use if you're receiving scrap e-mails.
# 6: Your competition will understand a LOT about you
If your personal info is easily available, it's simpler for your competition to stalk you. They'll know who you are, where you are, and how to get in contact with you.
As a small business owner, when you're working with restricted resources, any info you leak out to rivals can prove to be very expensive, specifically if you're providing something unique to the marketplace. So, minimize your danger by preventing rivals from stalking you with domain personal privacy security.
# 7: You can't register a domain without offering genuine details
You're likely wondering if there's a way around registering a domain with phony information. Why provide your information to your domain registrar and get listed on WHOIS in the first place?
The truth is that you can't register a domain without genuine information. All the data you supply will be verified. Credibility is necessary for small business owners to win the respect and trust of your audience from the start. You can't manage to look fake in front of your audience.
What are your choices?
It's worth your time to check if you have domain privacy defense currently by calling your domain registrar's or hosting supplier's customer support. A lot of small companies don't even understand if they have it, as they're generally rushing through the process of domain registration, so make sure to check it out! If you don't have domain privacy protection currently, here are a few of your options:
- Option 1: Buy domain personal privacy defense while registering a brand-new domain. This is a great time to do it; you might as well get it done from the start.
- Option 2: Add domain privacy to a current domain name. You can add it at any time if you just inspected your domain personal privacy and realized it's not safeguarded. Contact your domain registrar or hosting provider to buy it today.
Getting domain privacy defense is simple, affordable, and can save you a great deal of difficulty. Is your domain protected?
