Thank you for your interest in RespectMyPrivacy. You indicated that you are a service provider who wishes to learn more about the opportunities RespectMyPrivacy can offer your hosting or domain registration business. We have prepared this helpful set of Frequently Asked Questions to help you learn more.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is RespectMyPrivacy?
- Why choose RespectMyPrivacy over other similar services?
- How does RespectMyPrivacy work?
- Who can do business with RespectMyPrivacy?
- How much does it cost?
- What top-level domains are compatible with RespectMyPrivacy?
- Why shouldn't I offer privacy services myself?
- How do you protect my customers privacy?
- Who do I contact for more information?
What is RespectMyPrivacy?
RespectMyPrivacy is a registrar-independent wholesale provider of contact services for Internet domain registrations.
Most top-level domains require every domain registrant to provide complete and accurate contact information, which is then made available to the public. RespectMyPrivacy provides a domain registrant with an alternate set of contact information, including a mailing address, phone fax number, and email address. This alternate information is then used on the domain registration.
When someone uses this alternate information to send the domain registrant a message, we receive the message, determine who it is for (automatically where possible) and pass it along to the domain registrant via email.
Why choose RespectMyPrivacy over other similar services?
There are two great reasons to choose RespectMyPrivacy over others: our independence and our mission.
RespectMyPrivacy is truly registrar-independent. Using our service does not lock you into a relationship with any particular registrar, giving you maximum flexibility if you find a better reseller opportunity.
Our mission is to protect the privacy of domain registrants service while facilitating contact when needed. Proxy contact service is our core and only business, meaning:
- It's not something we knocked together to look competitive in the registration business.
- It's not a way for us to recover revenues lost by underpricing our domain registrations.
- It's not a way for us to lock down our domain registration customers and keep them from switching.
- We don't automatically cancel the service in response to threats.
If you respect your customers' privacy, there is no better way to prove it than by offering them RespectMyPrivacy services.
How does RespectMyPrivacy work?
With RespectMyPrivacy, you use a simple web-based API to add and remove domain names. When you add a domain name, all you provide is the email address, since that's the only thing we need to forward any correspondence to the registrant.
Then, using the same API, you request back the various fields you'll need to populate the domain registrar's contact information using whatever tools they provide. The entire service is designed to be highly automated.
Who can do business with RespectMyPrivacy?
We provide wholesale services with no end-user support. Consequently, our services are generally only available to online service providers (e.g. hosting companies) who are either an ICANN-accredited registrar themselves or have an established, documented reseller relationship with one.
How much does RespectMyPrivacy cost?
RespectMyPrivacy offers tiered pricing based on volume, with significant discounts for large numbers of domains. Domains are sold in blocks + overages.
| Block | Setup Fee | Base Monthly | Monthly Overage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 domains | $500 | $245 | $50/100 domains |
| 1000 domains | $750 | $390 | $40/100 domains |
| 2000 domains | $1000 | $680 | $35/100 domains |
| 4000 domains | $1250 | $1160 | $30/100 domains |
| 8000+ domains | Contact us. | ||
The set-up fee is a one-time charge, payable in advance, for us to establish service for you. It includes bulk creation of contact information for all the domains up to the block size you start out with and API integration support. You can send us the list of domains and email addresses in a simple XML or CSV format and we will set them up. We can then send the contact information back in a similar format, or you can query it out of our API.
The base monthly charge for your block will be invoiced in advance, together with overages or document handling fees from the preceding month. In other words, you will be invoiced on or around the 15th of May for your June block plus any overages or document fees accrued during April. You can change your block size at any time, with the change taking effect in the next billing cycle.
Overages, if any, are calculated based on the highest number of domains we serviced at any point during the preceding month. Domains begin to count as soon as they are added. They cease to count after they have both been deleted and our system detects either a change away from our contact information or a registrar transfer in the public whois database.
For each domain, the fees above include one document forward (fax or postal mail) per domain per month of up to ten scanned pages. If additional documents or pages arrive that need to be forwarded, they will be charged at $1.00/document + $0.25/page for mail and a flat $1.00 for faxes up to thirty pages. Junk and nuisance mail and faxes are not forwarded or charged for.
What top-level domains are compatible with RespectMyPrivacy?
The following gTLDs have been certified for use with RespectMyPrivacy: COM, NET, ORG, BIZ, INFO and NAME. No ccTLDs are currently certified for use with RespectMyPrivacy.
We are just a forwarding service and as such we will provide service for any requested domain, but we do not guarantee the availability of properly-formatted contact information for any non-certified TLD.
Some ccTLDs require the contact information to be within the country of registration. There also exist TLDs in which the use of services such as ours appears to be prohibited, such as the .US ccTLD. We consider our service unsuitable for such TLDs, but we have no contractual relationship with their registries and as such, we are under no obligation to comply with or enforce their rules. As the registrar or registration service provider, it is your sole responsibility to ensure that offering RespectMyPrivacy services for any given TLD is consistent with your contractual obligations pertaining to that TLD.
Why shouldn't I offer privacy services myself?
Because 50% of lawyers are below average.
A significant majority of the non-junk correspondence we process on behalf of domain registrants are cease-and-desist letters of various types. In a majority of those the lawyer sending it can't figure out the difference between a domain name and a website, so they assume that we are the entity responsible for the website. (Sometimes they're so convinced it's us that they can't even be bothered to indicate what web site they're complaining about until the first page of their tirade is a distant memory.) The effect of that is that they end up threatening us, rather than the domain registrant, with all manner of horrible retaliation for whatever-it-is.
We, then, always have to write back to the grumpy lawyer in question and explain, very slowly and using very small words, that all we do is handle documents and that we have no ownership of or control over whatever they're worked up about. The concept that we are just a forwarding service is one they can usually get their head around. This frees them up to redirect their efforts so that, if they have a legitimate concern, they can get it addressed with the appropriate party as quickly and efficiently as possible, without involving any innocent bystanders.
As an online service provider and, most likely, the web host of the site in question, you don't have the luxury of saying you're just a forwarding service. Instead, you have to try to explain the difference between a service provider and a content provider and hope that the angry lawyer in question, who is getting paid by the hour to make you miserable until he gets what his client wants, has at least taken a survey course on Internet liability law. Most haven't.
How do you protect my customers' privacy?
We disclose our records about domain registrants only in response to a subpoena or other legal requirement to do so. In all cases, that information is limited to the identity of the provider who set up our service for the domain and email address provided when it was set up.
If you wish to set up your own unique per-registrant email addresses and double-forward messages from us to you to the registrant, we can provide our service without any information about the domain registrant, leaving their privacy entirely in your hands.
Whether you choose this approach or not, we do require that the email address for any given domain registrant be valid at all times, and we reserve the right to test addresses as needed to satisfy ourselves of that.
Who do I contact for more information?
Feel free to contact sales@RespectMyPrivacy.com with any pre-sales questions you may have about our service.