whois information and privacy

Question

I recently owned my own website and had to fill in details for whois database. I'm not comfortable displaying my personal details (where I live, what my number is etc.) publicly. My hosting provider however did give me the option to customize what I display in whois.

I started getting spam calls recently about various web services and such. Besides there are disturbing doxing tales on the Internet. So my question is, am I required in any way (say, by law) to display accurate information in whois database? I'm not concerned about people not able to contacting me, after all.

Actually whois display information which you have entered as contact information during domain / host register. You can make it private. Most of hosting company allow option to make it private with little extra cost. So once you make it private from whois , you will be fine.. — Helping Hands, Jun 17 '15 at 11:54
Possible duplicate of Providing fake info during domain registration - does it matter? — , Feb 06 '17 at 05:56

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 17 '15 at 11:57

There is no such law you need provide the correct details to the domain registrar, however most if not all domain regulators request correct whois information otherwise they will suspend the domain.

There is no such thing as full anonymity when purchasing a domain even with private whois. Private whois will stop the majority of spam however there are services to reveal this information.

If you want the spam to stop fully, don't use your every day email address or your telephone number. If your email address or telephone number has been exposed, then its already to late and your details are in the mass of spammers databases, and you would need to change your email and phone number.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 17 '15 at 12:08

Yes, you are required to provide valid information. This requirement is generally imposed by the TLD authority, therefore it may be waived for certain TLDs.

Each TLD regulated by ICANN must have valid registrant information. This is per ICANN regulation and ICANN is pushing this rule quite hard. Since 2014 the registrars must validate the user email and registrant physical address, and have the right to suspend the domain if the data are incorrect or invalid.

Most registrars provide a whois privacy feature that hides your personal information.

That said, you can decide at your risk to provide invalid information. It's unlikely that an attorney will ring at your door, however it's at your own risk. As I mentioned, you can get your domain locked or disabled.

whois information and privacy

2 Answers2