Terms of use
searchzone.ch is a research and security tool. It exists to study the .ch zone and to prevent, find and fix abuse and misconfigurations.
What searchzone.ch is for
You may use searchzone.ch and its data only for:
- Combating cybercrime and abuse: finding and handling phishing, malware and spam, and knowing which registrar, hoster or mail provider to contact.
- Scientific and social research: insights into the .ch zone as a whole, such as which providers run DNS and mail and how widely SPF, DMARC and DNSSEC are used.
- Other purposes in the public interest: domain owners, administrators and providers finding and fixing misconfigurations.
What is not allowed
- Market research and competitive analysis about domain holders or customers of a provider.
- Building marketing, sales or address lists, lead generation, and contacting domain holders for advertising.
- Sending spam, or any use that helps phishing, fraud or other abuse.
- Profiling the people or organisations behind domains.
- Copying, republishing or reselling the data in bulk, and automated mass queries beyond the published API limits.
Data
The list of .ch domains comes from the .ch zone file, published by the registry SWITCH as open data. DNS records are resolved by searchzone.ch's own harvesters from the public DNS. Registry data (RDAP) is fetched by your browser directly from the registry on request and is not stored by searchzone.ch.
SWITCH allows the zone file to be used only for combating cybercrime, scientific and social research or other purposes in the public interest (SWITCH open data terms). These terms pass that limit on to you. searchzone.ch downloads the zone at most once every 24 hours. searchzone.ch is an independent project and has no connection to SWITCH; do not contact SWITCH about this website.
Access and limits
Search results and domain pages are shown after you accept these terms on this website. The API requires the same acceptance: the terms are accepted when you create an account and its API keys. Rate limits apply; clients that exceed them repeatedly are blocked temporarily. Access can be revoked for use that breaks these terms, and we may block IP addresses or whole IP prefixes that abuse the service.
No warranty
The data is collected automatically and may be incomplete, outdated or wrong. Recommendations are general advice; check changes to your DNS with your provider. searchzone.ch is not liable for decisions based on the data.