In these days of ever-decreasing privacy, and ever-expanding contact, it can be a real challenge to keep some level of privacy, anonymity and security concerning your web site. In fact, your site could be the conduit for any number of spammers, marketers, identity thieves and more to get not only your name, but your physical address and phone numbers very, very easily.

This is because when you register a domain name you are required to fill in these details for the domain registrar, and if you don’t take steps to keep this information private, it will be there for all the world to see.

This can be problematical for many reasons. You may have a personal site with pictures of your family, or you may have a business site that for a variety of reasons you may not want to give your competitors access to. Nasty things have been known to happen, such as major spamming campaigns, linking your site to “bad neighborhoods”, and sometimes even someone showing up on your doorstep unannounced. None of that sounds good. Eh? Didn’t think so!

The way to avoid much of this mess is to opt for private domain registration when you register a new domain. It can also be applied after the fact, but with less effectiveness, as the cat is, to a degree, out of the bag.

This type of domain registration keeps all of your personal details private, through the use of a third party proxy service that acts as the registrar. This is usually a separate company that is operated by your domain registrar for the express purpose of handling domain privacy registrations.

Once this service is paid for, (and it’s usually very inexpensive) the details that appear in a WHOIS search are the details of the proxy service. They can include as little or as much information as you feel comfortable with. This provides a layer of protection between you, your family and your business from all who would use your personal contact information for purposes other than you might like them to!

For business sites, a bit more thought may be in order. While you may want some degree of privacy, realize also that there is a fine line to tread. You want customers and possible prospects to be able to contact you as well. The key here is to make certain that any truly personal data, like home phone numbers, addresses and the like are not listed in a public database like WHOIS. Give relevant business contact information, much like you would on your site’s About Us page, and keep anything you’d rather keep private just that.

All in all, private domain registration is a very good thing. It can keep you insulated from a horde of spam, persistent marketers, and worse. Just make sure that when you employ it for business purposes, more thought goes into exactly what information you want to share!