Contact Privacy for Domain Name Owners

What is it and why should I enable it on my domain?

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Most people wouldn’t dream of setting up a website that lists their personal email address, home phone number and street address. But this is exactly what happens on a daily basis when a new domain name is registered.

The WHOIS Record is an informational record tied to every domain name that tells the entire Internet about the owner of the domain. You can see an example of a WHOIS record at http://www.tucowsdomains.com.

For large corporations, having their street address, email, and phone number on the Internet might not be a big deal, but what happens when individuals, or home office register a domain name?

Suddenly there’s a connection between the work you do, family photos you share, the opinions you express, emails you send and your physical location and your phone number.

If you’re a domain owner already, or if you’re thinking about registering one, you should consider enabling the Contact Privacy feature on your domain’s WHOIS record. Doing so will hide your personal contact information and tell others your personal information is off limits.

Besides personal security, another reason to enable Contact Privacy is to avoid unwanted spam in your inbox. 

WHOIS records contain email addresses that spammers routinely ‘scrape’ so the addresses can be used to send unsolicited email and phishing attacks.

If you are a business, of course you want to be as accessible as possible. But a WHOIS record really isn’t a valuable promotion vehicle. Credible prospects will easily find your contact information on your web site, in your local yellow pages and in other directories that you choose. A WHOIS listing mostly services these spammers and unwanted solicitors.

Securing your contact information online isn’t complicated and Contact Privacy offers important privacy controls for both businesses and individual domain holders.