A note from Domains By Proxy

[kimmer]

I received this note the other day. I'm not aware of having any business with these folks in regards to my domain; or maybe my memory is faulty. All of the IP numbers in the header go back to SECURESERVER.NET.

Anyone else receive one of these notes and know whether it's legit?

QUOTE

Dear MYNAME,

We know you value your privacy. So we wanted to let you know we've made a required change to our privacy policy.

The change is in compliance with an effort by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the global organization that governs domain registrars.

To protect consumers from losing their domain names if the registrar goes defunct or loses its accreditation, ICANN now requires all registrars to store a copy of their registrations with an outside data storage firm. This protects you by ensuring that there will always be a valid record of your domain ownership.

The storage provider we've chosen is legally obligated to safeguard these files. Your name and other personal information will continue to be protected, but now with an added layer of security.

Regards,
Domains By Proxy

[Paddy]

Kimmer, I got one. It's legit.

See: http://www.icann.org/announcements/announc...t-2-09nov07.htm

I have at least one domain with the registration info held by Domains by Proxy. You must have one too...?

I imagine that this is in response to the big issue a year or so ago, when Registerfly went toes up and a whole lot of people had serious problems retrieving/proving domain ownership status and renewing their domains.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RegisterFly

[kimmer]

QUOTE

I have at least one domain with the registration info held by Domains by Proxy. You must have one too...?

I wasn't aware that I did; but I read your links and I gather this is connected to the domain I have through GoDaddy.

Nothing held by "the other company" is protected, secured, private -- or any other such thing.    We're working on changing that.

Thanks for the insightful info. Much appreciated.

[Paddy]

Um - who is the other company if it's not Iron Mountain? How did you find that out? Can't see anything at all on Domains by Proxy's web site about who this outside data storage firm would be if not Iron Mountain. The outside data storage firm has to be approved by ICANN and I would expect meet the sort of standards Iron Mountain lists here:

http://www.ironmountain.com/resources/escrow/rde_faq.pdf
Note: this PDF took forever and a day to download.

The cost of this service is included in ICANN fees that registrars pay - therefore I very much doubt that any of them are going to opt for another data storage firm as they'd have to bear the cost of it entirely themselves (not cheap, I bet!)

More info here:

http://www.icann.org/announcements/announc...t-2-13feb08.htm

QUOTE

The files must be compressed and encrypted and securely submitted to the escrow agent for verification and storage. The escrow agent will hold all deposits for at least one year and will release them to ICANN or a designated third party within five business days of a demand by ICANN for release.

The only third party that I can see ICANN ordering them released to would be the authorities in the case of disputes etc., where some sort of verification was needed. And that's the case with just about any data - it can be subpoenaed.

Of course, Iron Mountain have occasionally lost info in the past...

http://searchdatabackup.techtarget.com/new...1300737,00.html

However, as we are all aware, there is no such thing as 100% safe data. I'm not going to get all worried about this - at leas not unless you have info I'm unaware of, Kimmer!

[kimmer]

I said GoDaddy because I finally opened up all the headers in TB and found this ip number:

208.109.14.190

and that gave me this link

where I read:

QUOTE

Network Owners that use secureserver.net hostnames
 
Go Daddy Software    
GoDaddy.com    
SESTECHNOLOGIES LTD

The last one isn't familiar, so I assumed it was the domain that I have via GoDaddy.

Other domain(s) are hosted and held by Hostway. I'm working to move them to GoDaddy and ASO so that I can make them private and have better service.

[Paddy]

Oh - when you said "other company" I thought you were referring to the third-party data storage firm referenced in the email from Domains By Proxy!

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

I'm not going to get all worried about this

I suggest imprinting your info on a small slab of concrete. Send that to me, freight prepaid, of course, and I'll put in the bottom of my fish pond until you need it. I'll send it back to you, COD. Your welcome!