Hiding your personal information from public WHOIS services

Netistrar, as an accredited Registrar operates under international domain name rules (ICANN RAA 2013). Under those rules we are able to offer Privacy Proxy services to domain name registrants/owners (both businesses and individuals) who may wish to hide their registration details (address, email, telephone, etc.) from public view.

Unless otherwise protected by Privacy Proxy Services, Netistrar is required to publish all domain name ownership records on public WHOIS servers. Sometimes this may be desirable, for example businesses want to publish contact information as a form of advertising, others may wish to keep their contact information concealed from public gaze.

Whilst many service providers often charge a fee to provide Privacy Proxy Services, Netistrar offers basic Privacy Proxy Services FREE of charge. This document outlines the extent of that service and how to enable Privacy Proxy Services for domain name managed under a Netistrar account.

Netistrar intends to offer premium Privacy Proxy Services for business customers and their clients in the future. Netistrar anticipates making a small charge for those enhanced premium services but a base level of Privacy Proxy Service will continue to be offered for FREE.

How does Privacy Proxy work?

All domain name owners are required to publish ownership contact information for each domain name that they own under publich WHOIS servers. This provides a public service to consumers and law enforcement agencies who may wish to inform a manager of a domain name about a security threat, report abuse, etc. Under Privacy Proxy, a domain name registrar can publish alternative contact and ownership information for domain name records protected by privacy proxy. This allows for communication between consumers, law enforcement and domain name owners, whilst protecting the domain name owners' contact information from public gaze.

Netistrar affects Privacy Proxy Services by replacing key contact and ownership information with placeholder information on public WHOIS servers. However, the key contact information published remains unique, and Netistrar maintains a mapping between the public WHOIS record for each domain name and the real contact information beneath.

This allows for an open channel of communication between domain owners and third parties whilst protecting private information.

Netistrar requires all third parties requesting information otherwise protected by Privacy Proxy Services to confirm their intentions for the use of the data.

How do I protect my domain name?

Within the Netistrar domain name control panel is an option to edit each domain name. Under domain name configuration panel is an option to switch on Privacy Proxy Services. Simple click edit to switch on Privacy Proxy Services for your domain name and your public WHOIS record will be amended and replaced with Netistrar's standard Privacy Proxy data. Please allow a few hours for WHOIS records to propagate.  Please note, Privacy Proxy is often enabled by default.  If you want to publish your information on public WHOIS services, then you may need to disable the Privacy Proxy service.