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Whois privacy for gray/black hat SEO

by Cosmo Demopoulos
11 replies
I wonder if warriors use Whois privacy to hide their identity if they're doing anything the SEs may frown upon?

I'd hate all my domains to be removed from (for example) Google's index because of problem with one.

Or maybe no one worries about this?
Thanks
Ted
#gray or black #hat #privacy #seo #whois
  • Profile picture of the author John Rowe
    I only use whois privacy when it's free. I have countless names without it, and I've never been penalized by the SE's ever, even when doing naughty SEO things. Shhhh... don't tell anyone about that part though.
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    • Profile picture of the author Cosmo Demopoulos
      Thanks John -- I'm probably too paranoid of Big Brother Google (BBG).
      Not doing anything wrong, but I've gotten BBG upset before.
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      • Profile picture of the author KirkMcD
        Originally Posted by Ted Demopoulos View Post

        Thanks John -- I'm probably too paranoid of Big Brother Google (BBG).
        Not doing anything wrong, but I've gotten BBG upset before.
        Google is a Registrar, they can see past your private registration.
        It's easier to just lie, but you need to use an email address that you have access to, in case ICANN sends you a verification request.
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  • Profile picture of the author Cosmo Demopoulos
    Ahhh, so lie when I/if I need to hide
    Makes sense certainly.
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  • Profile picture of the author Angela V. Edwards
    I don't hide my identy from Google. I have Whois privacy because I have been a victim of an online stalker in the past. I do not do blackhat anyway, so that's not why my domains are listed privately.
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    • Profile picture of the author Emailrevealer
      A couple of points:

      Those privacy / Proxy setting do not apply to Google. They can see your real info.

      The Privacy and Proxy features will not protect you from stalkers either. There are ways to get past them and find out who owns a site.

      You can lie but it is still possible to be identified and if Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers sends a verification request the site could get shut down.

      The best solution to online privay is a NV corporation with nominee service. Your real name will not appear anywhere on the corporation, business licence or bank accounts. You use that name and # to sign up to email accounts, domains, 800#s etc. You can still use the proxy services if you like but they really don't matter.
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      • Profile picture of the author davezan
        Originally Posted by KirkMcD View Post

        Google is a Registrar, they can see past your private registration.
        Originally Posted by Emailrevealer View Post

        Those privacy / Proxy setting do not apply to Google. They can see your real info.
        If you mean Google can "peek" through the domain name's WHOIS privacy, no
        they can't. Not unless they maybe keep some kind of historical record change
        like DomainTools does, or the registrar in question allows them to see through
        it.
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        David

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  • Profile picture of the author Dixiebelle
    If you are doing something wrong or against the rules, the search engines and/or your registrar will shut you down whether your domain is private or not.

    I now have 60 domains - all private. You won't believe how privatizing your domains will cut down on spam email. A person goes to your site and wants to know who owns it. So they go to the whois site, and there you are, exposed to the world. There are people out there who use this method to garner information for mailing lists to be sold to every Tom, Dick, and Harry on the internet.

    I don't particularly care to have my name, home address, phone number and email address sitting on a page to be veiwed by every spammer and scammer out there. We've all gotten the emails where we are told that our host account is about to be shut down unless we verify our private information, or our domain name is about to be sold. I don't need that kind of headache.

    Who cares if the search engines and registrars see your information? If you are totally "white hat", they're not going to bother you.

    Dixie
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    • Profile picture of the author John Rowe
      Originally Posted by Dixiebelle View Post

      If you are doing something wrong or against the rules, the search engines and/or your registrar will shut you down whether your domain is private or not.
      The search engines will shut you down? That's ridiculous. LOL!!
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    • Profile picture of the author Chris Lockwood
      Originally Posted by Dixiebelle View Post

      I don't particularly care to have my name, home address, phone number and email address sitting on a page to be veiwed by every spammer and scammer out there.
      Who says you have to use your home address or phone for that?

      What about lost sales from people who don't trust you since you're hiding your identity?

      I'm also laughing about the search engines shutting us down.
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