WHOIS Privacy
Protect your personal information and identity on the internet with our Domain Whois Privacy service.
Keep your domain registration details private for only R49 per year.
What is WHOIS Privacy?
WHOIS Privacy, also referred to as “domain privacy” or “private registration” is a solution to keeping your personal information private on the public WHOIS records. WHOIS servers lists the personal details about a person or a company that owns a domain name. Why? Because this information is required by ICANN to ensure that all domain name registrations are authentic and belong to a legitimate individual or organization.
Unfortunately, WHOIS records aren’t private, and if you own a domain, personal details about you or your company (name, email, address, phone number etc.) are accessible by the public, including individuals who use this information to spam you or to perform identity theft.
With WHOIS Privacy added to your domain, your personal or business information will not be displayed on the internet via a WHOIS system. Your information will be stored on our private and secure servers, away from public access. The details that are shown on the public whois servers will be masked by us.
We also provide a unique email address for your domain name on the public whois servers that will filter all spam, scam and junk emails. Only emails that come from ourselves or the registry directly, will be forwarded to you. This prevents your personal email address being data mined for spam, scam or identity theft.
Why do I need WHOIS Privacy?
Having your personal details public on the internet is a major security threat as you have no control over who will access it and for what purpose.
WHOIS Privacy allows you to:
Reduce Spam
Ever wonder where people are getting your email address or number? Spammers and marketers mine WHOIS data in order to aquire personal details. These details are used for unsolicited communiques via email, phone calls etc.
Protect yourself from scams
Scammers may also mine the available data in order to attempt identity theft and other fraudulent practices. Safeguard yourself from this kind of activity.
A small price to pay for privacy
For only R49.00 per year, you can protect your personal information from WHOIS systems, and ensure that you won't receive unsolicited email, calls ets.
Control of Contact Information
From a professional perspective, using a whois privacy helps re-enforce visitors to use specific contact information. Instead of using your private phone, email or address to enquire about professional services, these individuals will need to use the information you provide on the website.
Keep your address and location private
Not everyone on the internet is friendly. If you post something on your site that could rile the attention of extremists, your home could be targeted. Although this is a more severe example, access to your private residence could open the flood gates for snail or hate mail and other problematic pranks.
Keep Website Ownership Private
Not all registered users are directly tied to the website in question. It's a common enough practice where designers and site hosting providers register the domain for clients. For whatever reason, some clients would rather not have their personal information tied to the site.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I see what WHOIS data is displayed about my business or myself?
You can see what details are displayed on the public WHOIS system by visiting our WHOIS page(https://www.domains.co.za/pages/whois) and performing a search on your domain.
How long does it take before my details become private with WHOIS Privacy added?
On a new domain registration, WHOIS privacy reflects immediately on the public whois servers. When updating an existing domain to use our WHOIS Privacy, the changes reflect on the public whois in 5 days. This 5 day limitation is part of the Registries policies which we unfortunately cannot circumvent.
Why hasn’t my WHOIS details changed yet?
If you have enabled WHOIS Privacy on an existing domain, the changes will reflect within 5 days.
How Long will it take to change my details back?
It will take 5 days to reflect your personal details on the public whois servers if you deactivate WHOIS Privacy.
How will my email address display with WHOIS Privacy enabled?
The email address displayed on the public whois servers for your domain will reflect as uniqueid@public-whois.co.za (eg: 444d121c9698c9229eb4dab9a189cfd7@whois-privacy.co.za)
Will I get emails once I subscribe to WHOIS Privacy?
Only emails from ourselves or the Registry directly will be forwarded to your personal email address. Any other email sent to this unique address will be blocked by our filters.
What registrant details are shown when using WHOIS Privacy?
The details on the public whois servers will reflect as:
Registrant Name: Whois Privacy
Registrant Organization: Whois Privacy
Registrant Street: P.O. Box 2215
Registrant City: Johannesburg
Registrant State/Province: Gauteng
Registrant Postal Code: 2192
Registrant Country: ZA
Registrant Phone: +27.116409700
Registrant Email: 444d121c9698c9229eb4dab9a189cfd7@whois-privacy.co.za
The unique email address will be different on every domain you enable WHOIS Privacy on.
What domain names can have WHOIS Privacy enabled?
WHOIS Privacy is offered on .co.za .org.za .net.za and .web.za domain names. As of the 25th May 2018, the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) will come into effect and no whois information will be displayed on international TLD’s such as .com .net .org etc.
How does the WHOIS Privacy process work?
When registering a new domain name, you can enable whois privacy in the cart process and we will take care of the rest. When enabling whois privacy on an existing domain name, we will update your information at the registry to the WHOIS privacy details and this will reflect in 5 days.