Domain Name Contact Information is Public Information
When you register a domain name, current policies require that the contact information for your domain name registration be included in a public database known as WHOIS.
Why and How Is My Information Made Public?
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the nonprofit body responsible for accrediting domain name registrars, requires all accredited domain name providers (including Network Solutions®) to make your contact information publicly available.
WHOIS information is used in several ways:
- Registrars (domain name providers) use it to validate requests to transfer a domain name registration to another domain name holder (registrant) or registrar.
- Many individuals and businesses use it to find out when a domain name registration they want is due to expire.
- Law enforcement agencies use it for investigations into illegal activities on the Internet.
- Intellectual property rights holders use it to contact individuals or companies that may be violating their intellectual property rights.
What Information Is Made Public?
The public WHOIS database is accessible by anyone, 24 hours a day, and includes the following information:
- Domain name holder's name and address
- Address, phone number, and e-mail address of the domain name WHOIS Administrative and Technical contacts
- Date of the domain name registration
- Date of the most recent update to the domain name record
- Date that the domain name registration will expire
- Host name and IP addresses for the domain name servers
If you currently have a registered domain name and want to see what data is displayed to all Internet users, visit the following WHOIS link and enter the domain name.
View your publicly accessible WHOIS data
How Personal Information is Abused
As the Internet has grown, abuse of the WHOIS database has increased. WHOIS information has been:
- Used for the purposes of sending unsolicited commercial e-mails, also known as spam .
- Mined and sold to third parties for marketing purposes.
- Accessed by individuals with malicious intent, such as hijackers, spammers, and stalkers, and those trafficking in identity theft. Recent Federal Trade Commission data indicates 23.7 million Americans have been victims of identity theft in the last five years, including some 10 million people in the last year alone. In 2003, individuals lost an average of $1,868 per incident totaling $3.8 billion.
What You Should Know
When you register a domain name, your personal contact information is accessible to anyone via the online WHOIS search tool that is available on the Web sites of all accredited registrars. While these sites typically allow searches to be performed one domain name at a time, some sites are susceptible to automated “mining” of the information by high-speed computer queries.
ICANN requires all accredited domain name registrars to make a complete copy of their WHOIS data — domain name contact data for all of their domain name customers — available to third parties that sign a contract known as a bulk access agreement. Once the agreement is signed, individual third parties become licensed to access all of the registrar's WHOIS data for an annual fee.
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