Private domain listing?

nitzmoff

When I originally created my site, godaddy threw in a private listing service through domainsbyproxy.com for free. Now that it's time to renew, they want to charge me about 10 bucks to continue service with these folks.

Do private listings actually do anything (they claim they prevent identity theft, hacking, etc.), or is it a way to suck a few more dollars out of folks?

Weiser_Cain

I didn't get it and all that happend to me was that I got was a piece of mail or two as 'Mr. Cain', see 'cause I never really told godaddy my real name in the first place.
Anyway I really can't see how knowing your name and mailing address is going to do much harm.

notman

Just a gimmick to suck out cash. My guess is they mean if you do a WhoIs, it won't show your personal info. So to be honest, I don't care if someone see's my name listed as the website owner. Besides, if someone wants to buy my awesome domain name, how else are they going to know how to contact me?

Downsizer

notman is correct. they just use thier info as proxy to you. So that if anyone wants to offer you billions for your domain name, they call godaddy first before getting your info.

As far as identity theft is concerned, it's bubkiss. all thats listed on a whois is your telephone and address, something anyone can get in a phone book.