Question
What is Whois Privacy Protection and why one might need it?
Answer
Privacy Protection is a service that hides the domain owner's, admin, and tech contact's details from public WHOIS and replaces them with information from a proxy service.
When one registers a domain name, one's contact details are included in the publicly available WHOIS database. Sometimes it's undesirable to have this data available publicly for the reasons of spam protection or domain hijacking.
The level of data disclosure depends on the registry. Some enable privacy by default (.de, .eu), whereas others (.us, .in, .nl) forbid it altogether.
For instance, in the case of a typical private gTLD domain with WPP enabled, Openprovider will replace the owner's, administrative, and technical contact's details with its proxy service.
See examples for both scenarios below:
Without WPP:
Domain Name: domain.extension
Registry Registrant ID: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Registrant Name: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Registrant Organization: <org_name>
Registrant Street: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Registrant City: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Registrant State/Province: <state_name> or <province_name>
Registrant Postal Code: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Registrant Country: <country>
Registrant Phone: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Registrant Phone Ext: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Registrant Fax: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Registrant Fax Ext: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Registrant Email: https://contact-form.registrar.eu/?domainName=domain.extension&purpose=owner
Registry Admin ID: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Admin Name: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Admin Organization: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Admin Street: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Admin City: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Admin State/Province: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Admin Postal Code: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Admin Country: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Admin Phone: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Admin Phone Ext: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Admin Fax: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Admin Fax Ext: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Admin Email: https://contact-form.registrar.eu/?domainName=domain.extension&purpose=admin
Registry Tech ID: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Tech Name: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Tech Organization: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Tech Street: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Tech City: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Tech State/Province: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Tech Postal Code: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Tech Country: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Tech Phone: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Tech Phone Ext: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Tech Fax: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Tech Fax Ext: REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Tech Email: https://contact-form.registrar.eu/?domainName=domain.extension&purpose=tech
With WPP enabled:
Domain Name: domain.extension
Registry Registrant ID: Not available from the registry
Registrant Name: Whois Privacy Protection Foundation
Registrant Organization: Whois Privacy Protection Foundation
Registrant Street: Hofplein 20
Registrant City: Rotterdam
Registrant State/Province: Zuid-Holland
Registrant Postal Code: 3032 AC
Registrant Country: NL
Registrant Phone: +31.104482295
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: https://contact-form.registrar.eu/?domainName=domain.extension&purpose=owner
Registry Admin ID: Not available from the registry
Admin Name: Whois Privacy Protection Foundation
Admin Organization: Whois Privacy Protection Foundation
Admin Street: Hofplein 20
Admin City: Rotterdam
Admin State/Province: Zuid-Holland
Admin Postal Code: 3032 AC
Admin Country: NL
Admin Phone: +31.104482295
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax:
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email: https://contact-form.registrar.eu/?domainName=domain.extension&purpose=admin
Registry Tech ID: Not available from the registry
Tech Name: Whois Privacy Protection Foundation
Tech Organization: Whois Privacy Protection Foundation
Tech Street: Hofplein 20
Tech City: Rotterdam
Tech State/Province: Zuid-Holland
Tech Postal Code: 3032 AC
Tech Country: NL
Tech Phone: +31.104482295
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax:
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email: https://contact-form.registrar.eu/?domainName=domain.extension&purpose=tech
See TLD reference sheet for a list of TLDs supporting the service (column AJ)
Regarding GDPR Regulations
GDPR was adopted by the EU in May 2018.
As a registrar established in the European Economic Area (EEA), we are unable to show the customer 's details in the WHOIS.
This means, by default, even if you have opted in or out for WPP, the contact data will always appear as "REDACTED FOR PRIVACY"
There's nothing that we can do about this; we will have to abide by the GDPR rules.
Due to GDPR, some fields in the WHOIS will always be "REDACTED FOR PRIVACY" (even when the WPP is turned off) in order to comply with the regulations.
Also, it's not possible to enter an email address in the Registrant Email field, due to GDPR. In this field there will be a contact form that will allow you to send an email to the registrant.
For more info, you can see this Knowledge Base article.
