Enabling WHOIS privacy settings

The following shows you how to enable the free WHOIS privacy service when you register a domain with DreamHost. This service is recommended as it protects your personal contact details from public searches.

If you didn't originally enable privacy when adding the domain, you can still add it within your panel at any time.

To enable:

1. Navigate to the Manage Registrations page.
2. Under the Modify Whois column, check the Whois box next to your domain.
3. Click the Modify whois button.

   The Edit Whois page opens.

4. On the next page, check the box titled I want all my contact information private.
5. Click the Save Registrant Contact button to save.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) broadly requires that the mailing address, phone number, and email address of those owning or administering a domain name be made publicly available through the WHOIS database. ICANN is a nonprofit organization that coordinates the Internet's global domain name system, and registrars (like DreamHost) must comply with their regulations in order to remain accredited.

Even though this contact information is publicly available, it is illegal for anyone to use this public contact information for marketing purposes. Unfortunately, spammers don’t really abide by the rules, which means that when you register a domain you may start receiving spam from marketers in the form of email, paper junk mail, or even telephone calls.

Yes. When you register a domain name through DreamHost, you have the ability to use private contact details in the public WHOIS database for most domain types. If you choose this option when registering a domain with DreamHost:

• all paper mail will be sent to DreamHost’s P.O. box where it is immediately shredded.
• all emails are automatically forwarded to your registrant address without revealing your true email address to the public.
• the telephone number listed forwards to an automated recording, which explains the caller must contact the domain owner via email to the proxy address on the domain.

Unfortunately, not all registries allow WHOIS privacy to be used. This is because each registry sets their own requirements for domain owners and some do not allow domain owners to list anything but their own contact details. For example, at this time, popular domain extensions such as .ca, .de, .eu, .io, and .us domains do not allow WHOIS privacy masking to be used. See this article for a list of domains DreamHost offers that do NOT allow privacy.

If privacy is available for a domain, you will see a checkbox titled I want all my contact information private when registering a new domain on the Manage Registrations page in the panel.

If the checkbox option is not listed, privacy is not available for that specific domain type.

Due to laws on data protection and privacy, please contact support if you need your WHOIS information displayed publicly.

WHOIS privacy does not need to be disabled in order to transfer a domain away from DreamHost.

You can update your WHOIS information even when privacy is enabled.