Unfortunately, in early February 2005, the United States Department of Commerce decided to eliminate “proxy or anonymous” registrations for .US domain names. According to the edict, new .US “proxy or anonymous” registrations are no longer allowed. Existing .US “proxy or anonymous” registration consumers will have to disclose their personal information in the public WHOIS contact database by January 26, 2006, or give up their .US domain name.
Network Solutions is extremely disappointed with this policy decision that we believe may curtail consumers’ ability to have their information held private in the namespace that is designated for Americans. Network Solutions was sent a letter by Neustar, the entity contracted to administer the .US domain space, indicating its belief that our private registration service is implicated by the Department of Commerce’s decision. For this reason, we are adhering to this new decision, while we more fully evaluate and attempt to understand its impact on our service.
The Network Solutions ’ Private Registration service, the domain name version of unlisted telephone numbers, is a very popular way for our customers to maintain privacy on the Internet. Arguments that this service can be used to hide the identities of con artists and intellectual property infringers are misplaced as all contact information is maintained by Network Solutions and is available subject to traditional legal process similar to unlisted telephone information.
Although Network Solutions is currently adhering to these new rules, we will be disappointed if, in fact, this is the ultimate result. We intend to discuss our concerns with government officials that oversee these issues and hope that we can continue to provide our private registration services in the .US space. We know that this is an important service for our customers and hope it will continue in the future. We will update the status of those efforts on this website.