As per ICANN regulations, when a domain is registered, registrants must provide registrars with up-to-date contact information. This information is displayed publicly in the Whois database, which acts like a giant address book that anyone can view.
Viewing your data by someone else is annoying. Don’t worry there is a solution to protect your data by activating WHOIS privacy protection and as a result, alternative contact information will be displayed instead of your data.
To learn more about it and how they protect us.
Let’s get started.
What is WHOIS?
WHOIS is an online digital identity database that stored the registered user’s information such as a domain name, an IP address, and registrant details. ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, regulates the WHOIS database as a free public directory since 1982.
How Does WHOIS Work?
WHOIS is work as a public database that helps the internet to find out who is behind a domain name and any associated with that website, domain, or IP address. And it is very important to keep solicitors and avoid unnecessary contacts via the public WHOIS lookup tool.
What is WHOIS Privacy Protection?
WHOIS privacy protection is an online database protocol system that helps to protect your domain’s sensitive personal information from the public including your name, phone number, e-mail address, and other information.
Why It’s Important?
Widely used for querying databases that store all the registered user’s resources based on the ICANN registrar’s accreditation obligation. To retrieve the registration data from WHOIS, you must provide your registrar with accurate and reliable contact details and promptly correct and update these details as necessary.
3.7.7.2 A Registered Name Holder’s willful provision of inaccurate or unreliable information, its willful failure to update information provided to Registrar within seven (7) days of any change, or its failure to respond for over fifteen (15) days to inquiries by Registrar concerning the accuracy of contact details associated with the Registered Name Holder’s registration shall constitute a material breach of the Registered Name Holder-registrar contract and be a basis for suspension and/or cancellation of the Registered Name registration.
icann.org
How Much Does WHOIS Privacy Protection Cost and How to Get It for FREE?
Anywhere between $2-$20 cost for each year WHOIS privacy domain protection. However, you can get it for free while you register Namecheap domains or other registrars with free WHOIS privacy protection. Make sure you can confirm this before ordering your new domain.
How to Use WHOIS Privacy Protection for My Domain?
If you’ve got your domain, then you can turn it ON by the following step:
Go to your Domain Provider Dashboard > Domain List > WithheldforPrivacy > Turn ON PROTECTION & AUTO-RENEW and go.
You can also find this instruction in the screenshot below:
What Kind of Information is Stored in the WHOIS Database?
The registrar that you select will ask you to provide contact and technical information, and they’ll keep your records and submit certain technical and contact information to the entity, known as the registry, which maintains the central directory for that TLD. Once you have completed the registration process with the required data, you become the registrant of your new domain name.
Note: Our domain websiteguidelines.com is protected with WHOIS privacy protection and as a result, it can’t be shown publicly. It shows anonymous data provided by WHOIS Withheld for Privacy.
For example, I’ve listed all the information below for which information can be stored on the WHOIS database while you register a new domain name:
Domain Information
- Domain name
- Registrar name
- Registered date
- Expires date
- Updated date
- Status
- Name Servers
Registrant Contact
- Name
- Street address
- City
- State
- Postal code
- Country
- Phone number
- E-mail address
Administrative Contact
- Name
- Street address
- City
- State
- Postal code
- Country
- Phone number
- E-mail address
Technical Contact
- Name
- Street address
- City
- State
- Postal code
- Country
- Phone number
- E-mail address
Raw Whois Data
Domain name: websiteguidelines.com Registry Domain ID: 2395445529_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.namecheap.com Registrar URL: http://www.namecheap.com Updated Date: 2022-04-26T08:26:40.31Z Creation Date: 2019-05-26T20:29:57.00Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2023-05-26T20:29:57.00Z Registrar: NAMECHEAP INC Registrar IANA ID: 1068 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: @namecheap.com Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.9854014545 Reseller: NAMECHEAP INC Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited Registry Registrant ID: Registrant Name: Redacted for Privacy Registrant Organization: Privacy service provided by Withheld for Privacy ehf Registrant Street: Kalkofnsvegur 2 Registrant City: Reykjavik Registrant State/Province: Capital Region Registrant Postal Code: 101 Registrant Country: IS Registrant Phone: +354.4212434 Registrant Phone Ext: Registrant Fax: Registrant Fax Ext: Registrant Email: @withheldforprivacy.com Registry Admin ID: Admin Name: Redacted for Privacy Admin Organization: Privacy service provided by Withheld for Privacy ehf Admin Street: Kalkofnsvegur 2 Admin City: Reykjavik Admin State/Province: Capital Region Admin Postal Code: 101 Admin Country: IS Admin Phone: +354.4212434 Admin Phone Ext: Admin Fax: Admin Fax Ext: Admin Email: @withheldforprivacy.com Registry Tech ID: Tech Name: Redacted for Privacy Tech Organization: Privacy service provided by Withheld for Privacy ehf Tech Street: Kalkofnsvegur 2 Tech City: Reykjavik Tech State/Province: Capital Region Tech Postal Code: 101 Tech Country: IS Tech Phone: +354.4212434 Tech Phone Ext: Tech Fax: Tech Fax Ext: Tech Email: @withheldforprivacy.com Name Server: dns1.namecheaphosting.com Name Server: dns2.namecheaphosting.com DNSSEC: unsigned URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/ >>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2023-01-08T08:39:24.78Z <<< For more information on Whois status codes, please visit https://icann.org/epp
Is the ICANN Domain Lookup the Same as the WHOIS Lookup?
Both the ICANN lookup and WHOIS lookup tools give you the ability to get domain information. But ICANN stored some more information compared to WHOIS, including authoritative server locations, RDAP terms of domain use, and detailed RAW registry and registrant details.
Conclusion:
WHOIS is simple privacy protection for a domain but it can be a life-saving option for a business person or an organization. Easy to use and free forever.
Overall, WHOIS Withheld for Privacy hides your contact details and replaces them with anonymized information. This means you’ll stay safe from spam, unsolicited phone calls, junk mail, and identity theft.
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