Domain privacy

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 letter. Others, however, handle privacy with more precaution, using measures including hosting domain names offshore and accepting cryptocurrencies 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).

Privacy by default

Some top-level domains have privacy caveats:

• .al: No information about the owner is disclosed.
• .at, .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: Since June 10, 2008, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority no longer posts registration details of individuals associated with .ca domains.
• .ch and .li : Since 1st January 2021 Whois information is private by default and can be obtained only in limited cases
• .de: Since May 25, 2018, the German Internet Registration Authority denic put extensive changes into force for the Whois Lookup Service. With a few exceptions, third parties can no longer access domain ownership data.
• .eu: 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: By default, individual domain name holders benefit from the restricted publishing of their personal data in the AFNIC public Whois.
• .it: Contact data of individuals is not published unless consent is given explicitly. For companies, data is always published. Proxy services are not allowed.
• .gr: No information about the owner is disclosed.
• .is: May hide address and phone number.
• .nl: Since January 12, 2010, registrant postal addresses are no longer publicly available.
• .ovh: Contact data is hidden by the registrar and must be explicitly made public.
• .uk: Nominet, 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: No information about the owner is disclosed.

Privacy forbidden

• .br: As of April 2022, the domain registration contract requires the publication of name, email, country, and CPF number for all domains. Additionally, if the domain owned by a company, the company's phone number, address, and CNPJ number must also be public. Access to some of these details requires passing a CAPTCHA at whois.registro.br.
• .us: In March 2005, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (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: Registrants for Indian domain names may not use any proxy or privacy services provided by registrars.
• .au: 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.