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Imagine giving away your name, email address, and phone number to a complete stranger. The very thought of doing something like this feels intrusive, but that is exactly what you are doing while registering your domain name. When you register for a new domain name, all your information becomes a part of a public database called WHOIS. Domain privacy is a service that keeps this data hidden from public domain records.
Anyone who wants to get a domain or is already a domain owner should be well aware of this service to protect their privacy. This article discusses what domain privacy is and why you need it in detail.
What is Domain Privacy Protection?
While registering for a domain, every owner has to share personal information, which consists of their first and last names, email, phone number, address, and domain registration, renewal, and expiry dates. The WHOIS, which is a public database, typically stores this information and allows anyone to look into the identity of the domain owner.
The presence of this personal information available on public seems problematic for many people, which is why most people opt for domain privacy protection. Domain owners often purchase this privacy protection from their domain registrar.
The domain registrar maintains your privacy by replacing your personal information with that of the privacy service. This means that your real name and contact information are no longer available to the public, and instead, anyone searching for the domain owner information will receive the information of the registrar. In simple terms, this service helps shield your contact details from the public so they remain private.
Do we need Domain Privacy?
Data has long since been important to cybercriminals, hackers, and spammers. Once you own a domain, ICANN makes it mandatory for anyone who owns it, whether it is a business, organization, or individual, to provide their personal information. Therefore, having domain privacy helps you maintain privacy.
Without domain privacy, your information can be easily accessed by spammers, scammers, and hackers. With this, you can fall victim to data theft, identity theft, phishing attacks, and other such malicious activities.
Apart from that, with your data publicly available to the WHOIS database, marketers could access it and send you unsolicited offers or marketing emails. You could also gain unwanted attention from competitors, stalkers, or even disgruntled customers. Without privacy protection, they could easily use your exposed information to harass you through phone calls or emails. They could also hire cybercriminals to launch spear phishing campaigns or business email compromise attacks.
Domain privacy is also important to stay secure from domain hijacking attacks. If your information remains public, a hijacker could trick your domain registrar into transferring ownership of your domain after stealing relevant information through spear phishing attacks. Gaining your domain back after this usually involves a hefty legal process or a sum of money as ransom. Therefore, to stay safe from these issues, it is important to subscribe to domain privacy and protection with your registrar.
How does it work?
As mentioned above, once you register your domain, you will have to provide certain information, including your phone number, address, full name, and email. Usually, this information is publicly available at the WHOIS database for anyone to look up.
However, if you have privacy protection enabled, people won’t be able to see this information. If anyone tries to search you up, instead of your information, they will see a “redacted for privacy” notice along with your registrar’s email address instead of yours.
The only information that remains visible to people is the date when the domain was registered and when the domain will expire. If anyone wants to contact you, they will have to contact your registrar first.
Some domain privacy protection plans have extra security measures intact, such as identity verifications and two-factor authentication.
How to Enable Domain Privacy and Protection?- steps to follow
Getting a privacy protection service is a very simple process. For new users, registrars often offer it at the time of domain registration. Generally, the steps to enable this protection depend solely on your domain registrar.
If you are a new user who is registering your domain, you will have to start by creating an account with your registrar. Once that is done and you have selected your domain name, add your domain to the cart and enter all the relevant information in the selected fields. Make sure to add the correct information, or ICANN might cancel your registration.
At this point, you will find an option to add domain privacy. You might also see it labelled as “WHOIS privacy.” If this is a paid add-on, see and explore if there are basic or advanced packages and choose something accordingly. Complete all the steps, and your domain purchase with privacy protection is complete.
Now, if you are an old domain holder and you want to add domain protection, you can get it by contacting your registrar’s customer service team. You can also search the website or your account to see if there is any way to enable or subscribe to it.
If you are certain that you have privacy protection, you can always double-check it through a WHOIS lookup. Navigate to the directory and search for your domain name using the search bar. Once you find it, scroll down to see if your name, address, phone number, etc., have “REDACTED FOR PRIVACY” written next to them. If yes, then your information is secure.
Is Domain Privacy available for all domains?
Domain privacy is available for the most common domain extensions, such as .com, .net, .org, and even several country-specific domains. However, with certain domains, you won’t be able to enable privacy services due to registry policies.
If you have a .us(United States), .ca(Canada), or .au(Australia), then you won’t be able to get any privacy service. These domains are restricted to privacy protections due to national regulations or rules set by the domain registry. So if you are new to domain registration, make sure to check if privacy protection is supported for your chosen extension.
Common Misconceptions
There is a lot of confusion regarding domain privacy due to common misconceptions. Many people remain under the assumption that it is for big businesses only. Many people wonder why they should bother with it when most of the people are not yet using it. Some people also shy away from this service as they fear their website will become invisible online.
Domain privacy is important for every domain owner, whether it is an organization, small business, individual, or enterprise, since it helps owners stay secure and private. With their personal information secure, they remain safe from various cyber attacks. There is no doubt that the WHOIS database is supposed to be public; however, having such sensitive information available publicly could lead to several online security issues for the domain owners.
Moreover, domain privacy has no impact whatsoever on a website’s visibility on the internet. Its only purpose is to hide the owner’s personal information from the public WHOIS database. It is quite cheap and often added for free by the registrar, and quite easy to set up.
However, it is important to remember that while this service protects owners from major cyber attacks, it does not provide safety from all online attacks. Owners still need to add additional measures in place, such as having SSL certificates, automated backups, and strong passwords.
Key Takeaways
Cyber attacks are a common occurrence nowadays, and amidst this, it is crucial to have domain privacy. It is important to keep yourself safe and secure, especially as cybercriminals now have various AI tools at their disposal to launch tricky attacks. Therefore, it is crucial to keep your personal information safe and private.
FAQs
WHOIS domain privacy?
WHOIS is a public directory that contains information regarding all domains, including personal information of their owners. Sometimes, domain privacy is also called WHOIS privacy.
What does “private domain” mean?
A private domain is a domain that has privacy protection, which means its owners’ details are hidden from the public.
Is domain privacy free?
This depends on your registrar. Most do give their service for free.
