WHOIS Privacy: Protecting Your Information
When you register a domain, your personal information becomes publicly accessible through WHOIS. This guide explains how to protect your privacy.
📖 7 min read
What is WHOIS?
WHOIS is a publicly accessible database containing domain registrant information: name, address, email, phone, registration dates, and nameservers. Anyone can look up this data.
Why Privacy Matters
Without privacy, you face spam, telemarketing, phishing attacks, and potential identity theft. Scammers harvest WHOIS data to target domain owners.
How Privacy Works
WHOIS privacy replaces your personal info with the registrar's proxy service. You keep full ownership while your details stay hidden.
GDPR Impact
Since GDPR (2018), personal data is often redacted by default for gTLDs. However, enabling explicit privacy protection is still recommended.
Free Privacy Registrars
- Cloudflare Registrar
- Namecheap
- Porkbun
- Google Domains
ccTLD Limitations
Some ccTLDs like .us don't support WHOIS privacy due to registry policies.