Super Private Website and Domain?? How To?

12 years ago

If you would have given us some specific reasons for his/hers privacy concern myself and others might be more inclined to give you concrete advice.

I am not saying that there aren't legitimate reasons why someone would want to run a website anonymously, but most people asking about this are doing so for non-legitimate reasons. :rolleyes:

I would hate to have been helpful to a scammer/hacker so I think I will refrain unless you/your client provide some more information.

Thanks
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GMD

Banned 12 years ago

Originally Posted by The Real Deal

If you would have given us some specific reasons for his/hers privacy concern myself and others might be more inclined to give you concrete advice.

I am not saying that there aren't legitimate reasons why someone would want to run a website anonymously, but most people asking about this are doing so for non-legitimate reasons. :rolleyes:

I would hate to have been helpful to a scammer/hacker so I think I will refrain unless you/your client provide some more information.

Oh stop it.

I don't think that's what going on here.

Based on the OP's version of events, it looks like he has a client who wants a website with something controversial -- some message or point he or she wants to get out but just doesn't want anybody to be able to link the website to themselves.

Like a prominent lawyer in town wants to increase the abortion rate in town or something but doesn't want to linked to that message lol

I would chime in here, but other than simple domain privacy and other known measures, I don't have anything to add here that might help the OP.

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sbucciarel

Banned 12 years ago

Originally Posted by GMD

Oh stop it.

I don't think that's what going on here.

^^^^^^
Thank you.

To the OP ... I think whois is pretty tight. There's really no way to find out who owns a site with privacy guard without a court order.

Thanks
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The Real Deal

12 years ago

Originally Posted by GMD

Oh stop it.

I don't think that's what going on here.

Originally Posted by sbucciarel

^^^^^^
Thank you.

Ok, maybe I am just being overly paranoid...it wouldn't be the first time! :rolleyes:

Here are my thoughts.

First let me say that I would most certainly NOT trust private whois to protect me if I was expecting death threats against my family due to running some highly controversial site.

I can't say for sure how it happens, but I know several instances where the owner of a domain has been traced down despite private whois. I think it comes down to some people having "insiders" at the big registrars who can get to the data behind the privacy guard. There is a guy over at DNForum who is an expert at tracing down "anonymous" domain owners, (mainly domain hi-jackers I think so he is one of the good guys

).

You also need to remember that unless you bought private whois immediately when you initially registered the domain your name and address will be available for anyone with an account at Domaintools.com via the whois history.

This is what I would do if I was in this situation.

1. Buy a pre-paid credit card anonymously using cash. If I was really worried I would even go as far as making sure to buy it from a location with few security cameras etc.

2. Set up a new user account on my laptop that I would only use for the purpose of this website.

3. Install the TOR software on this user account and use it whenever I would access the Internet, (this is a totally anonymous proxy software).

4. Register the domain name at a non-US domain registrar. I would go with Fabulous. They are in Australia.

5. Naturally I would use my pre-paid anonymous credit card for the domain registration and the hosting account.

6. I would research an address on the Internet and Google Streetview to make sure it was a real physical residential address and not a business. I would then use this fake address when registering the domain name and hosting account.

7. I would also use private whois for the domain name to avoid people being able to point out that it is a fake address and report it to ICANN.

Be aware that using fake Whois is against ICANN's TOS and you run a risk of losing your domain if they DO find out...(although I believe they will normally first email you and give you 14 days to correct it).

8. If the site was highly controversial I would also set-up a back-up hosting account in a different country so I could just re-direct the domain name if the host decides to pull the plug.

Please understand that I have answered what I might do if I was in the position of starting a website on a highly controversial nature, and wanted to protect my family against crazy people. However, this is NOT what I suggest YOU DO! Some of what I have written above would be against TOS of both the registrar, ICANN and the hosting company, and it might even be breaking the law depending on where you live...

Hmm, having read through the above again I am still thinking maybe I should have kept my mouth shut! :confused:

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1 reply

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dbx3

12 years ago

Originally Posted by The Real Deal

Ok, maybe I am just being overly paranoid...it wouldn't be the first time! :rolleyes:

Here are my thoughts.

First let me say that I would most certainly NOT trust private whois to protect me if I was expecting death threats against my family due to running some highly controversial site.

I can't say for sure how it happens, but I know several instances where the owner of a domain has been traced down despite private whois. I think it comes down to some people having "insiders" at the big registrars who can get to the data behind the privacy guard. There is a guy over at DNForum who is an expert at tracing down "anonymous" domain owners, (mainly domain hi-jackers I think so he is one of the good guys

).

You also need to remember that unless you bought private whois immediately when you initially registered the domain your name and address will be available for anyone with an account at Domaintools.com via the whois history.

This is what I would do if I was in this situation.

1. Buy a pre-paid credit card anonymously using cash. If I was really worried I would even go as far as making sure to buy it from a location with few security cameras etc.

2. Set up a new user account on my laptop that I would only use for the purpose of this website.

3. Install the TOR software on this user account and use it whenever I would access the Internet, (this is a totally anonymous proxy software).

4. Register the domain name at a non-US domain registrar. I would go with Fabulous. They are in Australia.

5. Naturally I would use my pre-paid anonymous credit card for the domain registration and the hosting account.

6. I would research an address on the Internet and Google Streetview to make sure it was a real physical residential address and not a business. I would then use this fake address when registering the domain name and hosting account.

7. I would also use private whois for the domain name to avoid people being able to point out that it is a fake address and report it to ICANN.

Be aware that using fake Whois is against ICANN's TOS and you run a risk of losing your domain if they DO find out...(although I believe they will normally first email you and give you 14 days to correct it).

8. If the site was highly controversial I would also set-up a back-up hosting account in a different country so I could just re-direct the domain name if the host decides to pull the plug.

Please understand that I have answered what I might do if I was in the position of starting a website on a highly controversial nature, and wanted to protect my family against crazy people. However, this is NOT what I suggest YOU DO! Some of what I have written above would be against TOS of both the registrar, ICANN and the hosting company, and it might even be breaking the law depending on where you live...

Hmm, having read through the above again I am still thinking maybe I should have kept my mouth shut! :confused:

BOOM! He did it again.

Thanks
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The Real Deal

12 years ago

Originally Posted by dbx3

BOOM! He did it again.

What is that suppose to mean?

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Guru4u

12 years ago

Originally Posted by The Real Deal

What is that supposed to mean?

Real Deal-

I'm pretty sure that was a compliment - I know I
was impressed with your answer.

Either that or he meant you blew some top secret secrets again :rolleyes:

Thanks
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The Real Deal

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Guru4u

Real Deal-

I'm pretty sure that was a compliment - I know I
was impressed with your answer.

Either that or he meant you blew some top secret secrets again :rolleyes:

Ahh, in that case fine. :p

Most people just hit the thanks button when they like a post, so I was a bit confused with what seemed like a cryptic message. :rolleyes:

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Gambino

12 years ago

I would just purchase a prepaid debit card with cash from a place without security cameras. Register it online with a false name to an address that leads to an apartment complex (you won't need an exact apartment number). Then register the domain with Whois and buy hosting with the prepaid card.

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RyanGillam

12 years ago

Don't like the suggestion of using a real address that belongs to somebody else. What if it really is controversial content, and then the person who you used for your address becomes a target?

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http://ryangillam.com/ryan-gillam-ltd-writing-services/

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OMGMarketingGroup

12 years ago

Originally Posted by RyanGillam

Don't like the suggestion of using a real address that belongs to somebody else. What if it really is controversial content, and then the person who you used for your address becomes a target?

Yea...the apartment complex idea is cool...and here you can get a street address at the local ups store if you get a box there...it won't be a p.o. box and you'll have a street address and box number.

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OMGMarketingGroup

12 years ago

Just checking in...didn't have time to read and absorb everything. No as stated before this guy wants to basically blog about politics, religion, the state of the world, new world order, blah blah. That's it. I told him I could help with some basic seo/marketing/position type of stuff. He just doesn't want his name out there because he does other business and he doesn't want to become a "target" on any level or have the issues affect his current business client base. This is kind of a side thing he wants to "get off of his chest" type of thing.

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sbucciarel

Banned 12 years ago

Originally Posted by OMGMarketingGroup

Just checking in...didn't have time to read and absorb everything. No as stated before this guy wants to basically blog about politics, religion, the state of the world, new world order, blah blah. That's it. I told him I could help with some basic seo/marketing/position type of stuff. He just doesn't want his name out there because he does other business and he doesn't want to become a "target" on any level or have the issues affect his current business client base. This is kind of a side thing he wants to "get off of his chest" type of thing.

I've got a couple of blogs like that and my political blog has whois privacy. Now I'm sure that somehow, some way, it could be breached, but is that going to happen? Not likely. I don't need overkill to maintain my privacy. Whois guard works well for the majority of users. You could even just set up an anonymous yahoo or gmail email account for the sole purpose of using this account and make all the other whois info fake. I've done that too. It's against ICANN rules, but who cares? As long as he gets email notifications, it works fine.

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David James

12 years ago

Good information by the Real Deal.
For hosting, check Ruskahost

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BloggingPro

12 years ago

The Real Deal hit the nail right on the head.

Pain in the ass? Kind of, yes. But definitely possible.

Offshore (i.e. outside of your country) domain registrar's and hosting is the way to go if you are looking to keep something as private as possible.

Proxy (real proxy, not "hidemyass") internet access is a must and absolutely NO site updating can be conducted from a mobile phone. You can even be tracked via a mobile's image meta-data. So that rules out posting images taken from a mobile phone.

Even then, if you get in some hot water with the wrong people (FBI? CIA? Interpol?) it's not like those pre-cautions are going to keep you safe for long.

Why do you suspect the client is wanting to create a religious or political site? Could it be something along the lines of hate-speech?

BP

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You're going to fail. If you're afraid of failure then you do not belong in the Internet Marketing Business. Period.

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OMGMarketingGroup

12 years ago

Ok...had time to read through everything. Thanks again to everyone. And yes I've thought about some of the mentioned ideas already. But didn't think about offshore hosting. I spoke with the client again. He's a friend and i think he didn't want me to judge him but I let him know I could care less...I'm not really religious. So he opened up that it will be kind of a typical site..."which pill will you take?" "are you in the matrix?" "Are you being lied to?" "Where did life really begin" "evolution..." "What do you really know about 9-11" ....etc. I don't think he plans on really going too crazy but I know being a real estate agent, among other things, I don't say certain stuff on facebook that I might really want to say and I think it's like that.

Yea I know I had read that if someone made a written request to ICANN or to some registrar, asking for certain domain info that it would have to be divulged and that certain levels of privacy can simply be bypassed. I just don't know enough about all of that to know right off the bat. I did private registration for a real estate related site/blog cause I didn't want someone to be able to know it was an agent that was writing the info, we call that a stealth site. Customers are more likely to give up email address/contact info, if they don't think they will be immediately hounded by a "money hungry" agent...as much of the industry is looked at in that way. Thanks for the suggestions...feel free to add more.

Thanks
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The Real Deal

12 years ago

Originally Posted by OMGMarketingGroup

Ok...had time to read through everything. Thanks again to everyone. And yes I've thought about some of the mentioned ideas already. But didn't think about offshore hosting.

The reason I suggested using a non-US registrar and an offshore back-up hosting solution is that some domain registrars in the US are just "too eager" to hand over domains to the authorities without even a court order in place.

If you have a look at the how easily Godaddy handed over Jotform.com earlier this year to the Secret Service without a court order or any form of due diligence, you can just imagine how much care they will take when it comes to your private Whois information. :rolleyes:

I posted about this earlier in this thread and here is an article about the seizure of jotform.com.

This is just one of many reasons you want to use a domain registrar with integrity, and for a website that would be considered controversial in the US, preferably one based abroad.

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shazhi

12 years ago

I am not saying that there aren't legitimate reasons why someone would want to run a website anonymously,

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Super Private Website and Domain?? How To?

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