Identity Protect Ltd

The place to discuss everything else..
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Boyle de Cabbage
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Post by Boyle de Cabbage »

I came across another site that looks amazingly like this one. So, with my interest peaked I did a 'whois' lookup and found this site, cx3forums, is registered through 'Identity Protect Ltd', whereas the one linked to above has more normal, honest registrant details, (although with the registrant's surname being 'Smith' I admit 'honest' is a value judgement :) ).

May i know why this site's owners are so keen to hide their identity?
Mazda paint is crap! Mazda should be ashamed of themselves!.

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jtonline
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Post by jtonline »

I believe Rob runs a number of car related forums. It's not uncommon for private individuals as domain name holders to withhold their postal addresses from the public whois databases. I considered doing it for one of my own domains, but the identity protection company then becomes the legal owner of the domain name so I decided not to.
Julian.
Sept. 2015 CX-3 Sport Nav, Dynamic Blue Mica, 1.5 Diesel, AWD, Automatic
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Boyle de Cabbage
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Post by Boyle de Cabbage »

Ah thanks,, so it is the same Rob Smith of Basingstoke.

I see he has a mixed bag then, some in Identity Protect and others not.

I too have registered domain names against my name and chose/choose to keep my address private, but in all such cases a phone contact and email address is shown. You can do this at the registrar level and don't need a third party. Identity Protect tends, IMHO, to be the province of scammers, n'er do wells and tax evaders.

I trust Mr R. Smith isn't one of those? :)
Mazda paint is crap! Mazda should be ashamed of themselves!.
Gus
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Post by Gus »

You have no choice now for new registrations it is either identity protect or full disclosure of name, address, phone number and email. I would do exactly the same.
CX-3, Sport Nav, Auto, Petrol, Soul Red Metallic, Half Stone Leather, Sep 2015 to Sep 2018.
CX-5, Sport Nav+, Auto, Petrol, Soul Red Crystal Metallic, Sep 2018.
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Boyle de Cabbage
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Post by Boyle de Cabbage »

Gus wrote: Wed May 31, 2017 4:10 pm You have no choice now for new registrations ....
I'm not sure we are talking about the same thing. I have a current .com domain. When I registered it in 2002 I gave my full contact details. At a five year renewal I was given the option to hide my address because I am a private individual and my website was non-commercial. I'm sure private individuals can still do this. My current whois blanks my address.

If I were a Limited company or an individual sole trader monetizing web traffic to a site I would fully expect contact details to be published.
Mazda paint is crap! Mazda should be ashamed of themselves!.
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jtonline
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Post by jtonline »

Nominet is the registry for the .UK Top Level Domain. .UK domain names have a free of charge Whois opt-out that private individuals, who are not using their domain name for commercial purposes, can set via their chosen registrar.

VeriSign are the registry for the .com & .net TLD's and they don't have a default free Whois opt-out. Some registrars do choose to offer such a service to private, non-commercial use, registrants either free (as in Boyle de Cabbage's case) or for a charge. As I said earlier, if you go down this route and you are not listed in Whois, be aware that you have no legal rights to the domain.
Julian.
Sept. 2015 CX-3 Sport Nav, Dynamic Blue Mica, 1.5 Diesel, AWD, Automatic
http://www.jtonline.info
Please add year of registration, model info., and location to your CX-3 Forums profile ~ See here for help: http://bit.ly/2fQzMfd
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Boyle de Cabbage
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Post by Boyle de Cabbage »

Back to the main issue: whilst I am happy that someone (Mr Smith) has the gumption to start a dedicated UK-based CX3 forum, I'd be less happy that once the site was earning a revenue from advertising that income wasn't declared for tax purposes.

Being open as to who the site owner is, is to my mind a prerequisite, so those that come here to write a little more than "Hello I'm Spike and I've bought a CX3" can start threads in the knowledge that everything is honest, above board with income declared.

It is all well and good for a Mrs Jones to start a single website blogging about making petits fours and to protect her privacy. But someone building chain of websites to produce an income is in a different league. A basic virtual server with 512Mb CPU, 20Gb Disk and 1 Tb traffic only costs $5/month (Digital Ocean). A few thousand page views/month and advertising soon pays the bills and produces a surplus.

Before we know it, Mr Smith is a millionaire and I can write a novel, "Mr Smith: My part In His Success". I would prefer transparency and with it ... accountability.

But that's it; it is said. ;)
Mazda paint is crap! Mazda should be ashamed of themselves!.
Gus
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Post by Gus »

I understand your comment but have to say I am fine with the way it is but you always have a choice.
CX-3, Sport Nav, Auto, Petrol, Soul Red Metallic, Half Stone Leather, Sep 2015 to Sep 2018.
CX-5, Sport Nav+, Auto, Petrol, Soul Red Crystal Metallic, Sep 2018.
Strangways
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Post by Strangways »

Lets face it we wouldn't be on-line talking if it wasn't for the biggest tax avoiders like Apple, Microsoft, Google etc.. How can anybody use the internet without them? Most of us also buy from the likes of Amazon and Ikea to get good deals and don't really give it a second thought. So I have no problem with Mr Smith.
2019 CX-3 2.0 Sport Nav+ Automatic in ETERNAL BLUE
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Greenman

Post by Greenman »

Mr Smith's tax concerns are his

Personally I'm more wary of those of hack (brick) systems....
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