We've already learned of many cases where GoDaddy sold a customer 'Privacy Protecton' but readily spilled the beans when asked by a third party with no legal grounds whatsoever. But DomainNewsWire reports a case that shows Privacy Protection is more useless than first thought. You can uncover it without even a call to GoDaddy: Robert Moore apparently had too much free time on his hands when he got wondering about strange signs he'd seen over the country: “Single? AustinSingles.org.” “Single? ChesterfieldSingles.com.” “Single? EmoryvilleSingles.com.” Moore wondered, who was behind them?
Moore started his search by doing a WhoIs to look up the domain details, but found they were "protected" by GoDaddy ’s privacy protection service. (We guess Moore didn't realize he could have simply phoned GoDaddy and asked!) But with a little detective work, this is how Moore uncovered the owner anyway: He began harnessing DomainTools’ reverse IP lookup to find similar domains even when WhoIs privacy was activated. Then it was a matter of finding an old or supposedly unrelated domain name on that IP address that didn't have privacy activated, because DomainTools tracks all WhoIs information. Even old information. Sure enough, Moore was unable to find the owner of the websites *despite* privacy protection and it didn't even take a call to GoDaddy.
http://themetricsystem.rjmetrics.com/2008/11/06/single-lawn-signs-conquer-the-american-landscape/http://domainnamewire.com/2008/11/07/slueth-uses-domaintools-to-uncover-mystery-of-single-yard-signs/The moral of the story: If you are going to take privacy protection, take it on *everything* from the very beginning. But since we've learned GoDaddy doesn't honor privacy protection anyway, I'd say you're wasting your money anyway:
http://news.com.com/Private+domains+not+so+private/2100-1038_3-5833663.html
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