Domain registrars
Hover privacy rating
Canadian domain registrar owned by Tucows, offering domain registration with free WHOIS privacy on supported extensions and email hosting.
Summary
Hover scores 36 out of 100 (grade F) on the domain registrars criteria. It meets 2 of 12 criteria: TLS configuration and two-factor login. It partly meets transparency report, tells users about requests, security headers, Free WHOIS privacy, honest renewal pricing and transfer and registry lock. It does not meet open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales and independent audit. It is based in Canada: Five Eyes member. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+ and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade B.
Score 36 out of 100. How scoring works
Criteria
- No
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No
No trackers or telemetry Weight 3 of 3
Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
The home page loads Google Tag Manager, and the privacy policy lists Google Analytics and Hotjar.
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No
No ads or data sales Weight 2 of 3
Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
The privacy policy lists Facebook Ads, Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads and Microsoft Ads among the services used, though registration data is never sold.
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No
Independent audit Weight 2 of 3
Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?
No independent audit is published.
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Partial
Transparency report Weight 2 of 3
Does the provider regularly publish how many government and legal requests it receives and how it responds?
The privacy policy says law enforcement and court requests are evaluated case by case. No request counts are published.
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Partial
Tells users about requests Weight 1 of 3
Does the provider promise to tell users about requests for their data, unless a court forbids it?
The privacy policy says users may be notified of requests depending on the circumstances.
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Partial
Free WHOIS privacy Weight 2 of 3
Is registrant data hidden from public WHOIS and RDAP at no extra cost?
Free and on by default, but not available for every extension.
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Partial
Honest renewal pricing Weight 1 of 3
Are renewal prices the same as, or close to, the first-year price?
Many extensions, including .com, renew at the registration price, but some such as .org and .me have first-year discounts.
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Yes
Two-factor login Weight 2 of 3
Do accounts support two-factor authentication with an authenticator app or security key?
Two-step sign in uses an authenticator app, with email codes as the default.
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Partial
Transfer and registry lock Weight 1 of 3
Is transfer lock on by default, with registry lock available?
Transfer lock is supported on every domain that allows it. No registry lock service is documented.
Automated tests
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Yes
TLS configuration Weight 2 of 3
Does the website pass the Qualys SSL Labs test with a grade of A or better?
Grade A+
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Partial
Security headers Weight 1 of 3
Does the website pass the Mozilla HTTP Observatory test with a grade of A or better?
Grade B (70/100+)
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Not tested yet
Modern web standards Weight 1 of 3
Does the website score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl website test?
Not tested yet.