Domain privacy (often called Whois privacy) is a service offered by a number of
domain name registrar
A domain name registrar is a company that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry or a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registry. A registrar ...
s. A user buys
privacy
Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively.
The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...
from the company, who in turn replaces the user's information in the
WHOIS
WHOIS (pronounced as the phrase "who is") is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block or an autonomou ...
with the information of a forwarding service (for email and sometimes postal mail, it is done by a
proxy server
In computer networking, a proxy server is a server application that acts as an intermediary between a client requesting a resource and the server providing that resource.
Instead of connecting directly to a server that can fulfill a request ...
).
Level of anonymity
Registrars typically collect personal information to provide the service. Some registrars take little persuasion to release the so-called 'private' information to the world, requiring only a phone request or a
cease and desist
A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not dis ...
letter. Others, however, handle privacy with more precaution, using measures including hosting domain names offshore and accepting
cryptocurrencies
A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank
A bank is a financial i ...
for payment so that the registrar has no knowledge of the domain name owner's personal information (which would otherwise be transmitted with credit card transactions). It is debatable whether or not this practice is at odds with the domain registration requirement of the ''Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers'' (
ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...
).
Privacy by default
Some top-level domains have privacy caveats:
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.al
.al is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Albania. It is administered by the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority of Albania (AKEP).
AKEP recommends that .al domain registrations be performed with one of the AKEP ...
: No information about the owner is disclosed.
*
.at
.at is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Austria. It is administered by nic.at.
Second-level domains
The .at top-level domain has a number of second-level domains:
* .ac.at (reserved for academic institutions, especially u ...
, .co.at, .or.at: Since May 21, 2010, contact data (defined as phone number, fax number, e-mail address) is hidden by the registrar and must be explicitly made public.
*
.ca
.ca is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Canada. The domain name registry that operates it is the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA).
Registrants can register domains at the second level (e.g., ''example.ca'') ...
: Since June 10, 2008, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority no longer posts registration details of individuals associated with .ca domains.
*
.ch
.ch is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Switzerland in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Made available in 1987, only two years after .com, it is administered by SWITCH Information Technology Services.
The domain ''ch'', as ...
and
.li
.li is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Liechtenstein. The .li TLD was created in 1993. The domain is sponsored and administered by the University of Liechtenstein in Vaduz. Registration of .li domain names used to be manag ...
: Since 1st January 2021 Whois information is private by default and can be obtained only in limited cases
*
.de
.de is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Federal Republic of Germany. DENIC (the Network Information Centre responsible for .de domains) does not require specific second-level domains, and there are no official ccSLDs under .d ...
: Since May 25, 2018, the German Internet Registration Authority
denic
DENIC eG is the manager of the .de domain, the country-code top-level domain for Germany.
It was founded in 1996 and is organised as a non-regulated not-for-profit cooperative. DENIC provides the Domain Name System (DNS) as well as registration ...
put extensive changes into force for the Whois Lookup Service. With a few exceptions, third parties can no longer access domain ownership data.
*
.eu
.eu is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the European Union (EU). Launched on 7 December 2005, the domain is available for any person, company or organization based in the European Union. This was extended to the European Economic Are ...
: If the registrant is a natural person, only the e-mail address is shown in the public whois records unless specified otherwise.
*
.fi: Individual persons' data is not published (changed in 2019), but for companies, associations, etc., data is published.
*
.fr
.fr is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet for France. It is administered by AFNIC. The domain includes all individuals and organizations registered at the Association française pour le ...
: By default, individual domain name holders benefit from the restricted publishing of their personal data in the AFNIC public Whois.
*
.gr
.gr is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Greece. Registrations are processed via accredited registrars and domain names in Greek characters may also be registered.
Second level domains
There are five official second level domains: ...
: No information about the owner is disclosed.
*
.is
.is (dot is) is the top-level domain for Iceland. The country code is derived from the first two letters of '' Ísland'', which is the Icelandic word for Iceland. Registration of .is domains is open to all people and companies without any specia ...
: May hide address and phone number.
*
.nl
.nl is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Netherlands. It is one of the most popular ccTLDs with over six million registered .nl domains .
When cwi.nl was registered by Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica on 1986-05-01, .nl ...
: Since January 12, 2010, registrant postal addresses are no longer publicly available.
*
.ovh
.ovh is an active generic top-level domain (gTLD) delegated to the DNS root zone on June 20, 2014. The domain is sponsored by OVH, a major French telecommunications and hosting business. This top-level domain is run by the AFNIC and registratio ...
: Contact data is hidden by the registrar and must be explicitly made public.
*
.uk
.uk is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United Kingdom. It was first registered in July 1985, seven months after the original generic top-level domains such as .com and the first country code after .us.
, it is the fift ...
:
Nominet
Nominet UK is currently delegated by IANA to be the manager of the .uk domain name. Nominet directly manages registrations directly under .uk, and some of the second level domains .co.uk, .org.uk, .sch.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .ltd.uk and .plc.uk.
...
, the guardian of UK domain namespace, provide domain privacy tools on their extensions (.co.uk, .me.uk etc.), providing that the registrant is not trading from the domain name. While the home address of the registrant can be hidden, the full name cannot.
*
.ro
.ro is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the nor ...
: No information about the owner is disclosed.
Privacy forbidden
*
.us
.us is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United States. It was established in early 1985. Registrants of .us domains must be U.S. citizens, residents, or organizations, or a foreign entity with a presence in the United ...
: In March 2005, the
National Telecommunications and Information Administration
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce that serves as the President's principal adviser on telecommunications policies pertaining to the United States' ec ...
(NTIA) said that owners of .us domains will not have the option of keeping their information private, and that it must be made public.
*
.in
.in (india) is the Internet country code top-level domain ( ccTLD) for India. It was made available in 1989, four years after original generic top-level domains such as .com, .net and the country code like .us. It is currently administe ...
: Registrants for Indian domain names may not use any proxy or privacy services provided by registrars.
*
.it
.it is the national top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Italy.
Registration is open to organisations and individuals of legal age who are citizens or residents of/headquartered in the countries of the European Economic Area (EEA), the Vatica ...
Italian domain names can not keep information private for law.
*
.au
.au is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Australia. It was created on 5 March 1986. Domain name policy is managed by .au Domain Administration (auDA). As of July 2018, the registry is operated by Afilias.
History
The d ...
Any Australian domain names ends with .au is forbidden from privacy due to the law. While most of the information are public, some of the information such as the street address, telephone and fax numbers of registrant is hidden.
Implications
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) broadly requires the
mail
The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...
ing
address
An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used to give the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using political boundaries and street names as references, along w ...
,
phone number
A telephone number is a sequence of digits assigned to a landline telephone subscriber station connected to a telephone line or to a wireless electronic telephony device, such as a radio telephone or a mobile telephone, or to other devices f ...
, and
e-mail address
An email address identifies an email box to which messages are delivered. While early messaging systems used a variety of formats for addressing, today, email addresses follow a set of specific rules originally standardized by the Internet Engineer ...
of those owning or administrating a
domain name
A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...
to be made publicly available through the "
WHOIS
WHOIS (pronounced as the phrase "who is") is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block or an autonomou ...
" directories. However, that policy enables
spammers
This is a list of individuals and organizations noteworthy for engaging in bulk electronic spamming, either on their own behalf or on behalf of others. It is not a list of all spammers, only those whose actions have attracted substantial independen ...
, direct marketers,
identity thieves, or other attackers to use the directory to acquire personal information about those people. Although ICANN has been working to change WHOIS to enable greater privacy, there is a lack of consensus among major stakeholders as to what type of change should be made. However, with the offer of private registration from many registrars, some of the risk has been mitigated.
Litigation
With the help of "private registration," the service can be the legal owner of the domain. This has occasionally resulted in legal problems. Ownership of a domain name is given by the organization name of the owner contact in the domain's WHOIS record. There are typically four contact positions in a domain's WHOIS record: owner, administrator, billing, and technical. Some registrars will not shield the owner organization name in order to protect the ownership of the domain name.
Ownership of domains held by a privacy service was also an issue in the
RegisterFly
RegisterFly was a New Jersey (U.S.) based internet hosting and domain name registrar that had their ICANN-accredited status terminated in March 2007.ICANN BloFAQs for RegisterFly customers April 3, 2007
History
RegisterFly formerly acted as a r ...
case, in which a registrar effectively ceased operations and then went bankrupt. Customers encountered serious difficulties in regaining control of the domains involved.
ICANN has since remedied that situation by requiring all accredited registrars to maintain their customers' contact data in
escrow
An escrow is a contractual arrangement in which a third party (the stakeholder or escrow agent) receives and disburses money or property for the primary transacting parties, with the disbursement dependent on conditions agreed to by the transacti ...
. In the event a registrar loses its accreditation, gTLD domains, along with the
escrowed contact data, will be transferred to another accredited registrar.
There have been several lawsuits against
Namecheap
Namecheap is an ICANN-accredited domain name registrar providing domain name registration and web hosting based in Phoenix, Arizona, US. Namecheap is a budget hosting provider with 11 million registered users and 10 million domains.
History
Name ...
, Inc. for its role as owner/registrant. and also in Silverstein v. Alivemax, et al. Los Angeles Superior Court Case Number BC480994 although this case was dismissed in May of 2014. Silverstein is well known for his anti-spam and email privacy campaigning, most notably in the case of William Silverstein v Keynetics, Inc., No. 17-15176 (9th Cir. 2018) - decided in March 2018.
See also
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Domain slamming
Domain name scams are types of Intellectual property scams or confidence scams in which unscrupulous domain name registrars attempt to generate revenue by tricking businesses into buying, selling, listing or converting a domain name. The Office ...
*
Internet privacy
Internet privacy involves the right or mandate of personal privacy concerning the storing, re-purposing, provision to third parties, and displaying of information pertaining to oneself via Internet. Internet privacy is a subset of data privacy. Pr ...
*
Anonymity
Anonymity describes situations where the acting person's identity is unknown. Some writers have argued that namelessness, though technically correct, does not capture what is more centrally at stake in contexts of anonymity. The important idea he ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Domain Privacy
Privacy
Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively.
The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...
Internet privacy