Whois Privacy

Whois databases list almost as much information about your domain name than your driver’s license does about you. But unlike your driver’s license, your domain’s Whois is public, which means some of your personal information can be obtained by anyone querying Whois records.

It is a contraction of the terms "Who" and "Is". This search tool provides information about a domain name and details of the contacts assigned to it.

Pease be aware that the data available is subject to change depending on the extension.

Whois databases list almost as much information about your domain name as your ID card does about you. But unlike your ID card, your domain’s Whois is public, which means some of your personal information can be obtained by anyone querying Whois servers.

The impact of GDPR on Whois

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect in 2018 in Europe. It regulates the collecting and processing of personal data and includes rules in relation to Whois information.

Before the GDPR became enforceable, all data related to a domain name was listed on, and accessible through, Whois databases.

In Europe, the majority of Whois data has been rendered unavailable to the public, making your personal information private. However, the same cannot be said for the rest of the world.

How does Whois Privacy work?

How can your privacy be protected? Netim can make sure your personal information stays private in one of two ways:

1. We replace all your contact information (Holder, Admin, etc.) on generic extensions such as .com.

Your information will no longer come up during a Whois lookup:

Whois privacy disabled
Whois privacy enabled

2. We enable domain privacy at the Registry level, as permitted by their own rules and regulations.

Depending on the Registry, all or only part of your contact information will be made private and the option might be unavailable to companies.

If your domain name is eligible for our Whois Privacy service, you can turn on and off privacy protection directly on your domain Control Panel.

Whois Privacy is not supported by all TLDs and the list of personal data which can be hidden varies from country to country. The domain name holder remains legally responsible for his domain names and how they are used, regardless of their privacy settings.

List of extensions offering Whois privacy


Extensions Description Whois privacy

Frequently Asked Questions

You can go to our Help Center and follow our tutorial to learn how to enable Whois privacy.

Since Whois Privacy keeps domain holders’ contact information private, you can use our contact form to reach domain name owners.

Contact a holder

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