WHOIS Lookups and Domain Privacy

Every registered domain has a WHOIS record — a public entry showing who owns it. Domain privacy hides your personal details from that record. Here is what each is and how to control them.

What WHOIS shows

Without privacy enabled, your WHOIS record exposes:

• Registrant name and (often) home address.
• Phone number and email address.
• Registrar, registration date, expiry date, and nameservers.

Anyone can query lookup.icann.org and see the lot in seconds — which is how scam renewal letters and unsolicited SEO offers find you.

Enable domain privacy

1. Sign in at manage.maxinames.com.
2. Open My Domains, click the domain, then WHOIS Privacy.
3. Toggle the protection on and save. The change is live within a few hours.

Maxinames includes WHOIS privacy free of charge on every supported TLD.

When privacy is not allowed

A small number of country-code TLDs (notably .us, .ca, and certain conditions on .eu) have rules against masking registrant details. Maxinames will tell you at registration when privacy is not an option.

Do businesses need it?

Usually yes. Even if your business contact details are already public via your company registration, leaving WHOIS open invites scrapers and impersonation. Use a registered business address and a role email (info@, hello@) if you prefer not to enable privacy.

For more, see our blog post Domain Privacy & WHOIS Protection.