Overview

If you register a domain with GreggHost, you can use the free WHOIS privacy service to keep your personal contact information out of the public eye.

When you buy a registration, the optimum moment to enable privacy is when you buy it. If you didn’t enable it when you first registered, you can do so at any moment if your registration type supports privacy.

How to enable privacy after the domain was purchased
You can add the domain to your panel at any moment if you didn’t enable privacy when you first added it.

Go to the Registrations section of the website.

Select the domain for which you want to enable privacy and check the box next to it.

Check the box labeled “I want all my contact information secret” on the next page.

Finally, save the registrant contact information by clicking the Save Registrant Contact button.
Why is domain registrant information publicly available?
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) mandates that persons who own or administer a domain name make their mailing address, phone number, and email address publicly available through the WHOIS database. ICANN is a non-profit organization that oversees the Internet’s worldwide domain name system, and registrars (such as GreggHost) must follow its rules to maintain accreditation.

More information about ICANN can be found here.

It is prohibited for anyone to utilize this public contact information for marketing purposes, despite the fact that it is publicly available. Unfortunately, spammers do not follow the regulations, so once you register a domain, you may begin receiving spam from marketers in the form of email, junk mail, or even phone calls.

Is it possible to keep my contact information from being made public?
Yes. For most domain types, you can use private contact details in the public WHOIS database when you register a domain name with GreggHost. If you select this option when registering a name with GreggHost, you will be able to:

All paper mail will be delivered to GreggHost’s P.O. box, where it will be shredded immediately.
Without revealing your genuine email address to the public, all emails are automatically redirected to your registrant address.
The advertised phone number connects to an automated message informing callers that they should contact the domain owner by email at the domain’s proxy email address.
Is domain WHOIS privacy available for every domain type?
Unfortunately, not all registers allow you to employ WHOIS privacy. This is due to the fact that each registry has its own set of criteria for domain owners, and some do not allow domain owners to list anything other than their own contact information. Popular domain extensions such as.ca,.de,.eu,.io, and.us, for example, do not support WHOIS privacy masking at the moment. A list of GreggHost domains that do not allow privacy can be found in the following article:

Privacy when registering a domain
When registering a new domain on the Registrations page in the panel, you’ll notice this checkbox if privacy is available for the domain:

01 svc.fw.png whois privacy
Privacy is not available for that domain type if the checkbox option is not selected.

Updating other WHOIS information
Even if privacy is enabled, you can edit your WHOIS information, such as your contact email. Instructions can be found in the following article:

Overview of WHOIS