Registered a .ie and then decided to get the .com - privacy hampered

Sniipe

I think this is fairly sneaky, but perhaps it is acceptable.

I registered a .ie for a business. I entered in everything legit. Then at the end I decided to grab the .com as it was a cheap enough add on.

When I did this I unknowingly published all the information I had used in the .ie to the .com.

.ie is blocked from whois sites. however .com has everything unless you pay for security (an extra €4 a month).

Next thing someone is ringing me on my mobile and telling me my email, home address and name. I was shocked. The wouldn't tell me how they got it, but I googled my house address and found all the information.

I rang the hosting company and they said this was common practice. I added legit stuff for the .ie because I assumed it needed to be above board. I was gutted.

Mrs OBumble

Why were you gutted? You chose not to purchase the privacy add-on for the .com, so the information was public.

If the registrar does not offer a privacy add-on, you should have used a different one.

NB Whois is not fully blocked for .ie. I don't know exactly what it does, but I just used http://www.whoislookup.ie/ for a domain that should have my name against it - and found that it actually shows a former employee of the association which the site is for.

Sniipe

.ie is protected. I did not chose to not purchase the add on for .com

rankingelite

You should have used Namecheap.com, they offer free whois protection..

Virtual

Unfortunately this is common practice with .com, .org, .net, and other TLDs. .ie is different because the people who run it decided so.
You can still purchase the privacy addon and your info will be hidden (but anybody who mined it already will have it).