The internet is full of fraud. A court in India is poised to tackle the problem by requiring more transparency from domain registrars to make it easier to fight fraud. Although the intentions are good, This is reported by Reuters Big American domain registrar GoDaddy is sounding warning bells that the court’s decision could fundamentally change the internet beyond India’s borders.
Fake domains have been an ongoing problem for India, which has seen its population increasingly connected in recent years. According to Our World In DataIndia has grown from 15% of its more than 1.46 billion residents with internet access in 2015 to 70% in 2025. That’s a big jump in a short amount of time, which means there are a lot of people with limited knowledge of online literacy and cybersecurity best practices. This makes those users a target for online fraud. This was reported by the country’s National Technical Research Organization (NTRO). It identifies more than 1100 phishing domains only in the first quarter of 2025 and new ones are coming up all the time.
Many of these scam sites use big brands to trick visitors. This led to many lawsuits by major American companies. According to Reutersforcing courts and the government to block fake sites and typos that rely on misspelled URLs to trick people. But to answer these companies The Delhi High Court took things further and made it a domain registrar problem.
A court sitting below the Supreme Court of India late last year ruled that domain registrars can no longer offer domain buyers the ability to hide their information as a default option—a common service offered to prevent people from simply looking up a domain owner’s name and personal information. Instead, buyers will have to enter privacy manually and potentially pay extra for it. Under the ruling, registrars are required to follow Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols, which require the review of government-issued ID cards or other identification documents. If law enforcement agencies or courts come to request information about a domain owner, registrars will be required to provide this information within 72 hours.
All of this is designed to protect trademark owners who infringe on their likenesses and the public who continue to fall for fraudulent sites. However, Reuters reported that domain registrar giant GoDaddy warned that it would fundamentally raise one of the privacy expectations people have on the modern internet.
If the privacy measures currently given to domain buyers are lifted, GoDaddy said it would be much easier to find sensitive information about a site owner. Simple tools that track WHOIS, public databases, and the protocol used to look up domain name registration details can reveal information such as a person’s name, address, phone number, and email address.
Because domain names are not region-restricted and can be accessed from anywhere, India’s ruling could potentially force companies like GoDaddy to comply with a court order that could require it to regulate all domain addresses globally.
GoDaddy is reportedly appealing the decision. According to Reutersand the court is expected to hear his objections on July 16. So go ahead and mark this on your calendars, because this could be the date when the pillar of internet privacy falls.
