Every domain has a public record (WHOIS, now usually RDAP) that names its registrar, its nameservers, its dates and, depending on the registry, its owner.
What is filed
Your domain is registered in the name of your Domain owner contact (see The Domain owner contact). Those details are sent to the registrar and the registry as the domain's owner; the registrar may email the owner address to confirm it.
What the public sees
Most registries today show the owner's name, address and contact details as redacted, and offer a contact form or relay address instead. What is shown differs by ending.
Without privacy protection, the public record shows what the registry publishes for that ending.
Privacy protection (a paid add-on)
Where the ending allows it, you can add privacy protection to a domain. With it, the public record shows the privacy service's details in place of your Domain owner contact's.
- When to add it. Tick it when you register or transfer the domain, or add it later from the domain's page in the client area.
- Price. It is priced per year, like the domain itself, and renews together with the domain.
- Which endings. Only endings whose registry allows privacy protection offer it. Several do not (for example .uk, .us, .de, .eu, .in, .au, .ca, .nl and .nz); for those the option is not offered.
Not a hiding place
Whatever the public sees, the registrar and the registry hold your real details, and a lawful request can reach them. We never sell or share your owner details beyond what registration requires; see Your data: what we keep.
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