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Do I need WHOIS privacy?
Using WHOIS privacy is helpful if you don’t want people to find your personal name, address or phone number in a WHOIS search. Or on any web statistics or website data and information gathering site.
For example, imagine you are Steve Jones, you run a business in San Francisco and don’t want people to find the personal information of the tradesmen you work with.
Here are 7 reasons why you need WHOIS privacy protection:
1. You don’t want your home address and phone number listed online.
2. You don’t want spam emails and telemarketers calling you.
3. You don’t want people to be able to look up your personal information online.
4. You want to keep your information private from identity theft.
5. You want to protect your family from online predators.
6. You want to avoid having your information sold to marketing firms.
7. You want to make it more difficult for people to hack into your online accounts.
You can get WHOIS privacy from most domain name registrars for free when you buy your domain name through their service.
If I have privacy, what will show up instead?
Your private data is replaced by the domain name registrar where you bought your domain.
However, people can still find out that you own that domain by using DigiCert® Transparency Report.
Instead of your data, the report will show whether your IP address is shared with many other domains, whether any spam has been sent from this IP address associated with your domain name, and if the WHOIS record was modified recently.
It will also list your web host, which could then be contacted if there are any issues with your domain that is hosted on their servers.
Your web host will then forward these to you. If there are any disputes even slightly involving your Web Host for hosting your domain, they may even take your website offline until the dispute is settled, which most commonly happens in the cases of DMCA takedown notices.
What is WHOIS privacy?
People buy WHOIS privacy protection to protect their personal information from spammers, scammers and other internet predators.
Usually, WHOIS info contains an email address and phone number, plus other contact details, including name of registrant.
But guess what! Sometimes people buy WHOIS protection services to hide their domain names from legitimate webmasters, businesses or even their friends and family members.
People also buy WHOIS protection because they do not want to receive emails and phone calls related to domain names they own.
Should I hide my WHOIS information?
WHOIS protection is the best way to avoid spam, scam and junk mail. It can also protect your personal information online.
These are just some of the reasons that people start thinking about when it comes to their privacy.
A WHOIS search is a simple type of internet search that allows anyone to look up your domain name’s information, like, who you are, where you’re from, and anything else you’ve put in the contacts field of your domain name’s WHOIS record.
With all this information available to anyone who does a WHOIS search on your domain name, it’s easy to see why many people are concerned about their privacy.
However, there is a solution: Domain Privacy Protection. With this service, you can keep your contact information private, while still appearing the same way in the public WHOIS.
Your domain name will continue to work as normal, with no new setup required. Domain Privacy Protection is available for .com, .net and .org domains, which most domain registrars will include for free when you purchase or renew your domain name through them.
Is it worth getting domain privacy?
Some people ask me why they should bother registering domain privacy on their domain name.
Well, first of all there are privacy concerns over hosting your site on the same provider as other sites like gambling.
There’s two different types of domain privacy: Private registration and WHOISGuard.
Private registration is where you keep your name, address and phone number private.
Some people prefer this, but I chose WHOISGuard because after all it doesn’t hurt to be cautious these days with privacy issues cropping up everywhere.
Not only that, but the main reason I decided to go for WHOISGuard was so no one could steal my domain name.
If I kept my name, address and phone number on there someone could steal it. I especially like the fact that I can cancel it at any time and my domain name will go back to being public.
You can also protect your privacy with other services, such as Offshore email or hosting providers, but that’s a different story.
Domain Privacy Protection is a service offered by most domain name registrars that allows you to keep your name, address and phone number private.
But it’s difficult to manage what information appears online so you can still receive important emails about your domain without receiving dozens of spammy offers every week.
No more junk! If you choose WHOISGuard as your private registration service, your name and contact information will not appear on the public WHOIS, but all other domain information will be displayed as usual.
This is perfect for protecting your email address and phone number, while still allowing you to receive important messages about your domain name. It’s also easy to cancel at any time, so you can show the WHOIS if necessary.
With this service you don’t need to worry that someone could steal and abuse your domain name and its WHOIS details.
So if you’re looking into buying domain privacy then do your research first and check out both options before making a decision about which one is best for you.
What can people see on WHOIS?
You can see the name of the registrant, when they registered it, where it was registered, what IP ranges are associated with the domain, how many domains are in their WHOIS history (sometimes), and whether or not there is a proxy.
Most people think ‘Whois’ means you can find out who owns something.” In most cases, you can’t. In fact, for 99.99% of domains out there, the Whois record simply returns as ‘Private’, as if no one owns it.
If a domain is registered privately or with a proxy service, WHOIS won’t even show the name associated with the company behind the domains.
There is some information to be gleaned from WHOIS about who owns a particular domain, but it’s not much. The name of the person or entity that registered the domain itself, for starters.
The registrant is the public face of a domain, but you cannot say definitively that this represents the owner of the site behind the domain, or the company that the registrant purportedly represents.
The WHOIS database is also often inaccurate. The contact information given by owners of expired domains is not updated when they renew their registrations, and outdated ownership records are frequently transferred to new providers when a domain changes hands (a practice which no legitimate business should engage in).
Is WHOIS information public?
No, not always. While more than 90% of the over 5 million domain names registered every day are listed in the WHOIS directory, many domains are blocked from public view for privacy reasons.
For example, if you are registering a .be domain name with an anonymous registration service, your address will be out of the public WHOIS directory.
Domain names can be registered anonymously in some countries.
In this case, the domains are registered via a third party with no direct link between the person or organisation that takes out the domain and the actual domain name owner.
For example, Domains By Proxy is used by most US .com registrants to register their domains privately.
In fact nowadays, their Domain privacy & protection settings are now managed where the domain was registered. To manage your domain protection, you’ll now need to log in to your domain registrar and go to its domain management page.
That service does not offer its users the option of total anonymity, but it does allow them to put their contact details in a hidden WHOIS record.
Also, if you opt for getting WHOIS privacy protection when you register your domain, your personal information won’t even be on there. Just your domain name registrars.
Most opt for the WHOIS privacy protection because nowadays it seems like most domain name registrars offer it for free when purchasing or renewing a domain using their service.
To prevent abuse, some domain name registrars do reveal the identities of their customers if they are presented with a court order.
They may also do so in other circumstances such as when necessary to protect their own interests.
Do I need WHOIS privacy? Conclusions.
In general, if your site has any kind of personal information on it (even photographs), then WHOIS privacy should be something that you’re considering to protect yourself from other people taking ownership of your domain name without permission.
WHOIS privacy is a vital service for any company that wants to protect their data and assets from copyright infringement, cyberattacks, or other threats.
Whois masking can help prevent others from snooping into who owns the domain and also helps keep spam bots away because they won’t see an email address listed in the public listing.
So whether you’ve been thinking about getting WHOIS protection for a while now or just realized the importance after reading this post, then get yours today!
