Member
Namecheap basic privacy is free, yes. Redaction not full replacement but same result for most lookups. I use them for my personal stuff. Work domains go through corporate registrar with full privacy bundle, but thats not my money.
Member
Porkbun includes privacy free too. You got upsold or looking at wrong tier. Check again.
Well shit. Just checked. Free. Ive been throwing money away for two years. This is worse than my registered agent.
So we all agree privacy is basically free now. Shell company dead on arrival for domains. Prague1983 still wrong but for different reason.
I said fight me not agree with me. Free privacy makes my point stronger. Why build legal infrastructure when registrars give it away. Shell company is overengineering for threat model that doesnt exist.
Member
GDPR makes this whole thread EU-specific funny. Whois is redacted by default for natural persons. I dont pay anything and my name is not in whois. Legal entity registration still shows but most of us are individuals. Shell company, privacy service, irrelevant if youre in EU and not a company.
Nigeria is same. Our whois shows nothing useful by default for .ng personal registrations. But I use Cloudflare registrar for .com and they redact free too — https://www.cloudflare.com/products/registrar/. Shell company makes no sense here unless you are actual business with actual liability.
What about subpoena. Privacy service hands over data. Shell company has legal separation. Different threat model.
Shell company has registered agent. Registered agent gets subpoena. You now have two points of failure instead of one. Legal separation is imaginary when chain leads back to you anyway.
Not if you use nominee service and keep actual ownership off record. Wyoming allows this.
