Domain privacy, or ID Protection: What it is and how to get it

For $10 a year, you can hide the physical address, phone number and email address details that are stored for some domains. Here’s why, and how.

Contact information is collected for every domain

When you register a new domain, you are asked for three sets of contact details: registrant (owner), technical, and administrative. Even if it’s the same person each time, all three sets of information need to be included. Each set includes a name, postal address, email, and phone number.

It is important to note that providing false information is not allowed - as well as being a bad idea - and that you’re obliged to keep everything up to date.

At least some of these details are publicly accessible through a WHOIS lookup. For instance, every .au domain’s information is available via auDA's WHOIS lookup. Exactly what is findable can differ by TLD, as different regulators set different rules.

If words like "TLD", "regulator" and “WHOIS” are unfamiliar, you might want to keep this glossary of domain-related terms handy.

However for some TLDs, including .com domains, Domain Privacy is an option that masks this information from the public view in a legal way. So, while your actual contact details are stored and used by your domain retailer or registrar, the public WHOIS lookup will not display them.

The situation for .au domains

Privacy is not allowed by auDA, so it isn't an option for .au domains. On the other hand auDA also requires that "the street address, telephone and facsimile numbers of registrants will not be disclosed."

So while the owners and operators of unprotected .au domains are not as exposed as many others, there's also no way to become as anonymous as .com, .nz or other namespaces allow.

ID Protection and your contact information

Domain privacy (also known as ID Protection) anonymises the contact information in your domain’s WHOIS record. Without this protection, a WHOIS lookup will display the email addresses associated with your domain. This optional feature is highly valued by many users. It’s a layer of protection that helps maintain your privacy and reduces the risk of receiving unwanted emails and calls.

If you register your domain with us, privacy costs an extra NZ$10 (+GST) per year. So, while some providers bundle privacy into larger packages and charge $30 or more, MyHost offers this protection at a competitive rate. If privacy is a priority for you, make sure to factor it into your price comparisons between providers before you choose where to register your domain.

How Domain Privacy changes a WHOIS lookup

Since New Zealand does allow for ID Protection, let’s take a look at myhost.nz. These WHOIS lookup results show you that this is a domain without privacy protection. (In fact, New Zealand's Domain Name Commission only allows individuals, not companies, to apply ID protection.) All the contact details are out in the open for the public eye.

When a person applies Domain Privacy, most of these lines would be hidden. Only the name and country are displayed, with everything else hidden from public view.

Adding Domain Privacy with MyHost

Enabling Domain Privacy with MyHost is straightforward, and there are two ways to do it. Just note that not every top-level domain allows for privacy protection, and that .au is in that category. So, you won’t always have this option.

As you register or transfer a domain

When you register or transfer a domain with MyHost, you can select the ID Protection while you're at the checkout, on the Domains Configuration screen. This ensures your contact details are protected from the moment your domain appears in your MyHost account.

Update your domain in the MyHost client area

For a detailed step-by-step guide on enabling domain privacy after registration, visit our MyHost Knowledgebase.

Main image: Photo by Chris Yang on Unsplash