Domains by Proxy, LLC (DBP) is an

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

company started by the founder of

GoDaddy GoDaddy Inc. is an American publicly traded Internet Domain name registry, domain registry, Domain name registrar, domain registrar and web hosting company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and incorporated in Delaware. GoDaddy is the world's fif ...

Bob Parsons Robert Ralph Parsons (born November 27, 1950) is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. In 1997, he founded the GoDaddy group of companies, including Internet domain name registrar GoDaddy.com, reseller registrar Wild West Domains, and Bl ...

. Domains by Proxy offers

domain privacy Domain privacy (often called Whois privacy) is a service offered by a number of domain name registrars. A user buys privacy from the company, who in turn replaces the user's information in the WHOIS and Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) wit ...

services through partner

domain registrars A domain name registrar is a company, person, or office that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry or a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) r ...

such as GoDaddy and Wild West Domains. Subscribers list Domains by Proxy as their administrative and technical contacts in the Internet's

WHOIS WHOIS (pronounced as the phrase "who is") is a query and response protocol that is used for querying databases that store an Internet resource's registered users or assignees. These resources include domain names, IP address blocks and autonomo ...

database, thereby delegating responsibility for managing unsolicited contacts from third parties and keeping the domains owners' personal information secret. However, the company will release a registrant's personal information in some cases, such as by court orderDomains By Proxy Domain Proxy Agreement
/ref> or for other reasons as deemed appropriate by the company per its Domain Name Proxy Agreement. As of 2014, over 9,850,000 domain names use the Domains by Proxy service.

Political usage

In the run-up to the 2012

United States presidential primaries Each of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and five territories of the United States holds either primary elections or caucuses to help nominate individual candidates for president of the United States. This process is designed to ...

, numerous domain names with derogatory expressions have been registered through Domains by Proxy by both Republicans and Democrats. Domains by Proxy have allegedly been a target of the Internet organization

Anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...

due to perceived malicious business activities including inducements to join their service, claims of privacy that are not fulfilled and the lowering of Google

PageRank PageRank (PR) is an algorithm used by Google Search to rank web pages in their search engine results. It is named after both the term "web page" and co-founder Larry Page. PageRank is a way of measuring the importance of website pages. Accordin ...

of the sites they link to.

Controversy

Fraudsters and scam

Controversially, Domains By Proxy is also used by a number of organizations that target vulnerable individuals by sending threatening

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that a ...

letters, and fake drug companies. It is also used by fake anti-spyware and anti-malware sites to hide their real ownership of the software that they promote. Advance Fee fraudsters also use Domains By Proxy. On 5 February 2016, the database of Artists Against 419, an Internet consumer protection group, reflected 1124 out of 108684 entries abused the services of Domains By Proxy. This represents a figure of slightly over one percent of the entries. Reportedly, Domains By Proxy provides services to various scammers around the world. It also was alleged that it scams domain owners for $50 USD when a third party sends emails to DBP claiming legal matters.

Privacy

In 2014, Domains by Proxy handed over personal details of a site owner to the

Motion Picture Association The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the Major film studios, five major film studios of the Cinema of the United States, United States, the Major film studios#Mini-majors, mini-major Amazon MGM Stud ...

due to potential copyright infringement despite the website not hosting any copyrighted files.

Footnotes

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External links