Today I received a letter today offering renewal of my other expiring domain name with cheap webhosting deals by a marketing company. It was just that it reached my postal residential address, they knew my phone number, and they knew all details about my expiring domain too. And it was not from my domain registrar!
Whois Records are Public
The Whois allows lookup of personal domain registration details when you register a domain name. Just visit any popular whois service Whois.sc, type in any domain name and see personal details of any domain name. So while you are busy hiding and protecting your personal confidential details like name, address, phone nunmbers from websites and spam tools, the WHOIS provides a legitimate source of such information. Anyone in the world wide web with access to the internet can see your details which affects your privacy and security.
Get private domain registration
I registered this Domain name with GoDaddy.com $1.99 deal and opted for private domain registration. Now see my whois details. GoDaddy helps to keep full privacy by registering through Domains by Proxy which hides the details, while you maintain full control of your domain name. And private domain name registration is free if you apply it to 3 or more domain names (limited time offer). It seems a cheap price for your privacy.
Do not opt for a cheap domain name registrar without private registration. Private Domain Name Registration is no longer optional but an essential requirement!
Update: That $1.95 private domain registration is part of a promotional deal for the first year. Sometimes they offer free private registration if you opt for over 3 domain names. The offer keeps changing. For subsequent years you need to pay the full private registration fee of about $8-9 per domain name.