How do I hide my domain WHOIS information?

General | Updated January 2026

When you register a domain name, your contact information (name, address, email, phone number) is published in the public WHOIS database. Domain privacy protection replaces your personal details with proxy information so your data is not publicly visible.

How to Enable

Add ID Protection in your client area

Log into your client area, go to Domains > My Domains, click your domain, and look for "ID Protection" or "WHOIS Privacy" in the addon options. Enable it to mask your personal information in WHOIS lookups.

01. What WHOIS Privacy Does

With privacy enabled, anyone who looks up your domain via WHOIS lookup sees the privacy service's contact information instead of yours. Your name, address, email, and phone number are hidden from spammers, marketers, and anyone else browsing the WHOIS database.

Emails sent to the masked WHOIS address are typically forwarded to your real email, so you still receive important domain-related communications.

02. Why You Should Use It

Reduce spam - WHOIS data is harvested by spammers. Hiding your email address significantly reduces junk mail.
Prevent domain slamming - Scammers send fake renewal notices to domain owners found in WHOIS. See Domain Slamming - Beware.
Protect personal information - Your home address and phone number do not need to be publicly searchable.
Business privacy - Competitors cannot easily look up who owns a domain.

03. Limitations

Not available for all TLDs - Some country-code TLDs (.us, .ca, .uk, etc.) have registry rules that limit or prevent privacy protection.
Must be disabled for domain transfers - When transferring a domain, you may need to temporarily disable privacy so the transfer approval email reaches you. See Transfer Authorization Email Issues.