Does anyone know of a way to set up a website (domain) that can not in anyway imaginable be linked to its owner? Can this be done?
this would be a violation of ICANN requirements, however you enable privacy on the registrant info so that it won't be available to the public.
You can protect the address with Namecheap's free whois guard service. But, If anyone want to know the ownership of a domain for any complaints and lawsuits, the registrar must reveal the information to them, I think.
you could always have it registered by a family member.....but it could still probably be traced to you. IPs etc
Somewhat, yes. Somewhat, no. Yes: You can use a Whois pricavy/protection plan which is free at certain registrars. It is about the cost of registration fees for a .com at most registrars You can forge fake info for the Whois. Keep in mind that Whois does check the info and will suspend domain registrar accounts of false Whois info. No: To make sure that you never lose your domain name, your registrar account info (for Whois) has to be accurate. Unless you are doing something illegal or outrageous, you would be best to have a way that people can contact you. If you have someone interested in your domain for their company, wouldn't you want to know they have interest?
Not necessarily. For a lot of sites, I wouldn't want my personal contact information to be displayed, especially with my home address and phone number. What I do is I register the domain under a corporation that I control, which will provide another level of privacy. This method has its drawback as it exposes the corporation to the legal liabilities of the domain. Also, the cost of maintaining a corporation solely for the sake of privacy is not very cost effective and just downright silly. It's best just to go with Domains by Proxy or a similar service offered by your registrar.
Likewise. I privately register many domains for that reason. It's the "any way imaginable" part that seemed a little odd. What reasons would you have to not be in any way imaginable connected to a domain unless there were legalities you were trying to avoid. You register under a corporation that you control. I'd assume the domain could still lead back to you? I dunno, I'm not trying to be rude... just new to all this.
Assuming the person looking for you knows how to search for the shareholder(s) of the corporation, but that is highly unlikely. All they really have is the Registered Agent information, and in the case of smaller single shareholder corporations, the Registered Agent is usally also the President, Secretary, and Shareholder, but no way to know with any certainty.
I can see a reason to hide your personal information. For example, say you had a website that you did not want your family and friends to know about. If it is on whois then family/friends can google it and find out what website you own - and in certain situations that can be embarrassing. For example, what if the son of a priest wants to have a website "closetatheist.com".
I think you have more problems to worry about if you are "the son of a priest" than ownership of an atheism web site.