The Data Trade Off

There are a lot of great tools that can benefit domain investors. Some of these tools are made for domain investors and other tools weren’t specifically created for domain investors to use but can be extraordinarily helpful to us. One issue investors should keep in mind is that any data they input into these tools may be seen by the data providers and potentially associated parties.

I use third party tools for many things. I perform Whois lookups on domain names I am looking to buy and those I am researching. I check various metrics for domain names I own. I do research on prospective buyers for my domain names and domain names I want to buy. I have not built my own tools, so I use third party companies.

In addition to these tools, there are also various platforms where I input data. I use parking services and sales platforms. There are domain name management tools and landing page companies. There are tools for just about everything related to domain names and domain name business operations.

I don’t spend too much time reading privacy policies and terms of service. I would imagine most of the companies in the domain name space promise to not share data or otherwise use private data input by customers. Maybe this is just wishful thinking though. I am always wonder if data I input is being used and or monetized by the companies or its principals.

When I use a third party company for something, I always analyze the trade-off of giving up my proprietary data. DomainTools, for instance, pretty much knows the types of names I am searching for, although quite a bit of my research is blog-related. Intellium, for example, knows what kind of domain names I am seeking from expiry auctions. The value I get from these companies and others is worth the information I am providing to them.

Domain investors should keep this in mind when using a new tool or inputing information on a third party website. They should understand the data could be used by the company for various purposes. For most investors, this is not a big deal and will cause no harm or difficulty to them. That said, people should understand that they are giving up information, and even if the company is run by honest people today, that could change if the company is sold.

It’s something to keep in mind not only on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but also when using domain name tools.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

1 COMMENT

  1. As the saying goes…nothing is free.
    There is always a cost associated with FREE
    Free shipping and handling is not free,the cost is already included in the price.

    Freedom of speech is not free.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Posts

Zomato Launches Nugget; Acquires Nugget.com

0
Last week, James Booth announced that he sold the Nugget.com domain name, which was listed for sale via Atom.com. He was unable to share...

TRC.com Sets Auction Record at Sav.com

5
TRC.com expired at the end of November 2024. The domain name was apparently registered at a domain registrar that doesn't have a deal with...

Consider Removing “WHOIS” from Domain Name Contracts

0
I use several different domain name purchase or sale agreements depending on the situation. Each of these agreements references "WHOIS" as a means of...

I Appreciate Having a Broker as a Counterparty

10
I appreciate being able to discuss the sale of a domain name with a domain broker representing a third party. Not only does this...

Gong.com UDRP Should be RDNH

1
The Gong Show was a television talent show on ABC in the late 1970s. Contestants would perform a variety of acts while being judged...