Firms don’t want you to use Whois privacy, but they use it themselves

Brands owners benefit from whois privacy, even though they’d prefer their adversaries not be able to use it.

There’s a common myth in intellectual property circles that, if it weren’t for whois privacy and proxy services, there would be a lot less bad stuff on the internet.

I can bust a hole right in the myth. But instead, I’d like to point out something these firms don’t often admit: they are some of the biggest users of whois privacy.

I was reminded of this while reviewing some notes from a recent .NYC Advisory Board meeting. .NYC doesn’t allow registrants to use whois privacy. That’s why, when two firms working on behalf of Michael Bloomberg registered a bunch of embarrassing domain names, I was able to easily find out who was behind it. During the meeting, someone pointed out that Bloomberg’s lawyers had to register the domains in their name, which ended up being rather embarrassing for them.

This is one of the reasons big corporations use whois privacy. They register some defensive domain names and don’t want to call attention to it. The other big reason is that they don’t want to tip off their fresh product plans.

One of the biggest suppliers of whois privacy services for these firms is brand protection firm Mark Monitor, which registers domains for clients under then name DNStination Inc.

When ISIS (the payments firm) started registering domains for a brand change, it used whois privacy.

When Bank of America registered hundreds of “sucks” and “blows” domain names for its executives, it used whois privacy.

And when Proactiv wanted to make its recall as quiet as possible, it used whois privacy.

So while IP interests and corporations bemoan the existence of whois privacy services, they ought to consider how they are by now take advantage of its availability.