Domain registrars
IONOS privacy rating
Web hosting company and domain registrar, part of the German IONOS Group, offering domains, website builders, hosting, email and cloud servers. The ionos.com site is run by IONOS Inc. in the US.
Summary
IONOS scores 30 out of 100 (grade F) on the domain registrars criteria. It meets 1 of 12 criteria: two-factor login. It partly meets transparency report, tells users about requests, TLS configuration, security headers, Free WHOIS privacy and transfer and registry lock. It does not meet open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, independent audit and honest renewal pricing. It is based in the United States: Five Eyes member; subject to the US CLOUD Act. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A- and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade B.
Score 30 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 privacy policy lists Google Analytics, Mouseflow and HubSpot on the website.
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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?
Hashed customer data is shared with Meta, Google, TikTok, LinkedIn and Reddit for targeted advertising.
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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?
A subpoena policy explains how legal requests are handled. 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?
IONOS reserves the right to notify customers before answering civil subpoenas, with no firm promise.
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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?
The private registration service was discontinued. Data of individual registrants is withheld from public WHOIS, but company contacts are published.
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No
Honest renewal pricing Weight 1 of 3
Are renewal prices the same as, or close to, the first-year price?
A .com is offered at 1 dollar for the first year against a regular price of about 20 dollars.
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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-factor authentication can be activated for the IONOS account.
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Partial
Transfer and registry lock Weight 1 of 3
Is transfer lock on by default, with registry lock available?
Generic domains have a transfer lock by default. No registry lock service is documented.
Automated tests
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Partial
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 (75/100+)
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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.