Overview
When you purchase a domain registration, ICANN requires you to submit personal details such as your name and address. When the purchase is complete, these personal details are publicly accessible to anyone running a WHOIS lookup.
Domain registration privacy offers you the option to replace your personal information in the domain's public WHOIS with anonymous information, thereby protecting your personal data.
What information is public?
When you run a WHOIS query, several personal details of the owner of the registration are available such as:
- Full name
- Full address
- Phone number
- Email address
To protect yourself against malevolent individuals, it's highly recommended that you enable privacy protection for your registration.
How to enable privacy protection?
View the following article for details on how to enable free privacy protection.
Is this service free?
Yes. DreamHost offers domain privacy for free. Most other registrars charge for this service, adding to the cost of a registration.
If you purchase a domain from DreamHost and privacy is available for the domain, you can add it for free.
How do I display my contact information publicly?
Due to laws on data protection and privacy, if you need your WHOIS information displayed publicly, please contact support.
Can I transfer a domain that's using WHOIS privacy?
WHOIS privacy does not need to be disabled in order to transfer a domain away from DreamHost.
What happens when an email is sent to the privacy address?
Since your WHOIS information is private, the email listed in a WHOIS lookup is a proxy address, not your actual address. If an email is sent to this proxy address, it is forwarded to the email you configured in your contact's WHOIS information.
What domain registrations do not support privacy?
Not all registrations allow privacy to be enabled. The following domains do not allow privacy to be added at DreamHost.
- .am
- .archi
- .asia
- .at
- .audio
- .auto
- .barcelona
- .bz
- .ca
- .car
- .cars
- .click
- .co.nz
- .co.uk
- .de
- .diet
- .es
- .eu
- .film
- .flowers
- .fm
- .game
- .gift
- .guitars
- .help
- .hiphop
- .hosting
- .in
- .inc
- .io
- .jp
- .la
- .law
- .link
- .lol
- .me.uk
- .mom
- .net.nz
- .ngo
- .nyc
- .ong
- .org.nz
- .org.uk
- .physio
- .pics
- .pro
- .property
- .quebec
- .tel
- .uk
- .us
- .vote
- .xxx
