WHOIS privacy protection is a service offered to protect the personal information of domain owners from being publicly accessible through the WHOIS database. The WHOIS database is a directory that contains information about domain names and their registrants, including names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and other contact details.
When you register a domain name, you are required to provide accurate contact information, including your name, physical address, email address, and phone number. This information becomes publicly available in the WHOIS database, potentially exposing you to spam, unwanted solicitations, identity theft, and other privacy risks.
WHOIS privacy protection addresses these concerns by substituting personal contact information with generic or proxy information. Here’s how it works:
The registrar Z.com (the registrar) provides generic contact information or a proxy email address, which forwards messages to your actual email address without revealing it.