whois details

[jennywren]

Well if you are a limited company and have your registered address as your home address then you have no legal choice but to put this on your website and whois. I suppose you could change your registered address to one of these remote office addresses but to be honest if someone wants to track you down and hassle you I am sure they could anyway.

Blimey I'm glad your not trying to find me lol, If I wanted to find some one, the only thing I would do is maybe the web but if it showed nothing first time I'd give up as I'v no idea what to look for, but on the other hand if you know your way around the web and want to look deep to track them I'm sure there is a way but buggered if I know or even care, but there is something very sinister about people that do this, unless they are looking for families, friends, ect, it sort of give the impression that its pay back time

[ASLCreative]

If I was running a business from home I would not want my home address posted, because if you have pi..ed someone off they could use this information for harassment, and maybe target you in many unpleasant ways.

Unfortunately, if you run a business website you have to show a geographical address on the website - running a business from home is not an excuse.

Except that any personalised item is exempt from the distant selling regulations.

You still have to communicate to the customer of their rights under the Distance Selling Regulations prior to the conclusion of the contract - Clause 7(1) [this includes the supplier's address] - even if your goods are exempt from the regulations. It is within that communication you tell the customer their rights under the Distance Selling regulations.

[WorthDoingRight]

Well, as I do trade from home my address details are on companies house, my website, whois etc and I do not consider it any more of an issue than having my telephone number in a directory.

I would like to take this moment to also apologise to Justin for posting the whois information earlier in this thread for the forum. It was a stupid thoughtless thing to do but hingsight is a wonderful virtue I do not possess.

Richard

[JSR]

I haven't read this whole thread in detail, but I would have thought that the key reason people/businesses would not want their details listed in a "whois" (or, indeed, any other kind of public directory) is due to spam. It's far easier for spambots to harvest a million details from a single public database than it is to go after a million different websites to find those details.

And before anyone says "but that only applies to individuals, not businesses", it's been estimated that spam costs businesses $20bn each year. If that's not a reason to keep control over your details, I don't know what is.

Spam is an increasingly huge problem in this day and age. Insisting on having your details, whether personal or business, in a single publicly-accessible database is naive at best.

[WorthDoingRight]

I do not like having my personal details listed but what choice does a home based business have? I looked into using an alternative 'office' based mailing address but that then led to costs for shipping mail sent there to me as well as a monthly fee. I think when I finally get around to a shop then I will change all details to that instead. I am sure unscrupulous traders flout this requirement but like most honest traders I do not.

[JSR]

I do not like having my personal details listed but what choice does a home based business have? I looked into using an alternative 'office' based mailing address but that then led to costs for shipping mail sent there to me as well as a monthly fee. I think when I finally get around to a shop then I will change all details to that instead. I am sure unscrupulous traders flout this requirement but like most honest traders I do not.

I'm the same.

I have no problem whatsoever with customers and prospective customers coming to my website, or other direct enquiry means, and then obtain my details. I don't like those details being freely available on a central database where unscrupulous businesses can harvest my details and then waste my day inundating me with spam and cold calling. But, as you say, what choice do we have?

[Charlie_]

I'm the same.

I have no problem whatsoever with customers and prospective customers coming to my website, or other direct enquiry means, and then obtain my details. I don't like those details being freely available on a central database where unscrupulous businesses can harvest my details and then waste my day inundating me with spam and cold calling. But, as you say, what choice do we have?

As far as im aware i stand to be corrected if i'm wrong the icann data bases are not in the public domain. But can be gleaned from deep inbedded code in your own website, so no reason to think of spam

[JSR]

As far as im aware i stand to be corrected if i'm wrong the icann data bases are not in the public domain. But can be gleaned from deep inbedded code in your own website, so no reason to think of spam

I just went to a Whois website, put in a domain, and up comes the details. A harvester could exploit that and put every combination of possible domain names in and harvest out all the details with far less hassle than going to each website on the web, digging into your site to find the contacts page, and pulling out the details.

[WorthDoingRight]

Well these two FAQs from ICANN and WHOIS sum it up nicely. Yes, you have to give the details BUT if you get spammed by doing so that isnt their issue!

Will my name and contact information be publicly available?
Information about who is responsible for domain names is publicly available to allow rapid resolution of technical problems and to permit enforcement of consumer protection, trademark, and other laws. The registrar will make this information available to the public on a "Whois" site. It is however possible to register a domain in the name of a third party, as long as they agree to accept responsibility -- ask your registrar for further details.

Spam or Viruses
If your complaint is about SPAM or computer viruses
The existence of SPAM and computer viruses are beyond the scope and authority of ICANN to resolve. If the content is of an illegal nature, or if you believe you are being spammed in violation of the law, you may wish to consult an attorney or an appropriate consumer protection agency.

[bigj2552]

there is a soloution to all this -

http://www.123-reg.co.uk/domain-names/w ... vacy.shtml