Private WHOIS registrationWhat it checks and how to fix it

What it checks

Looks up the domain's public registration data through WHOIS, falling back to RDAP, and searches it for privacy or redaction markers such as a privacy proxy, 'redacted for privacy' or WhoisGuard. Passes when the registrant's details are hidden, and warns when they appear to be public or the lookup fails.

Why it matters

A public WHOIS record exposes the registrant's name, email, phone number and postal address to anyone. That data feeds spam, targeted phishing and social engineering against your registrar account, the one account that controls the whole domain. Most registrars offer privacy protection for free.

How to fix it

Turn on WHOIS privacy (also called domain privacy or contact privacy) in your registrar's domain settings:

• Cloudflare Registrar: redacted by default.
• Namecheap: Domain List → Manage → enable "Domain Privacy".
• GoDaddy: Domain Settings → Additional Settings → Domain Privacy.
• Porkbun, Gandi, Google Domains / Squarespace: privacy is included and on by default.

Some registries, such as .us, do not allow privacy services; for those, register with a role address (for example domains@example.com) and a business address.

Check the result:

whois example.com