How can I hide whois information?

Question

Is it possible to hide ownership of a domain, so i won't show up on whois searches for domains I own, even if you know where to look?

Solution 1

Most domain registries require whois information to be publicly available, at least where the domain name is used commercially. The exact rules will depend on the TLD of the domain, and possibly who it was registered with.

Another option is to use on of the "private registration" services that will set themselves up as the owner/contact in whois, and will act as an intemediary for any communications, giving you effective privacy.

Solution 2

It is pretty easy to make up an address. I have personally left the wrong address in my personal domains and just kept one public email address correct.

I get a threatening letter that I must make it accurate, but how would they know, and I can say they really don't care.

It cut down on my junk snail mail for business services.

Solution 3

Yes, it is possible to hide your information on WHOIS. Just get the private registration from your domain registrar. Through this you can hide your personal information. After that check details at a WHOIS service to know whether your registration is private or not. If private registration means your information will be hide on this tool.

Comments

[Admin]

I registered my domain with HostGator and they have an option to set privacy for that trough their portal under the domain tab. When I searched my domain into whois websites I saw the private infos that HostGator had setup for me, however some whois websites had already the correct informations about my domain before I set the privacy; now I wait for them to clear their cache ( hopefully they will ).

[zdan]

Are there ever issues with this, such as the service owning the domain instead of you? Or are the agreements written such that you actually own it?

[Mark Hatton]

I've never actually used a private registration service, but I would strongly recommend reading the contract through thoroughly to ensure that you're not giving anything away that you shouldn't be. I'm also not sure what happens if the registrar gets shut down.

[Admin]

Directi does this for free. I believe Godaddy does this, but for an extra cost. I have not used ENOM in a long time, so not sure there.

[KajMagnus]

How did they realize that the address is incorrect? (Or why else would they have sent you the letter?) Didn't you specify a seemingly correct address?

[MrChrister]

Registrars email customer every year with the same threat. The email is accurate, but the street address isn't.

[Ponytrader]

I used privacy registration with GoDaddy a few years back; but for various reasons had to give up the domain. As soon as I gave up the domain, and privacy came off, my personal information became exposed on whois. I was then inundated with marketing contact. So be aware. If you give up the domain, and even though you might have had privacy registration on it, you will be open to your privacy becoming public at that point; unless you sell that domain, or if the domain is immediately picked up by another party and your information is replaced by the new party information before yours is exposed