The Whois is an online database searchable by anyone from anywhere in the world. It lists the registration information and status for a given domain name. When you register a domain name, the registrant, administrative, and technical contact information would normally appear in this database, allowing anybody searching for your domain name to contact you. Some domain owners want this information available to the public, especially domains related to businesses and companies. If, however, you do not want your personal contact information freely available online, you can use Whois Privacy to hide this information from public view.

Whois Privacy is a free service offered with your domain. Privacy will mask your contact information on the Whois database so that it is not freely available. Anyone wishing to contact you will not be able to do so directly, but will instead have to fill out a form that will be forwarded on to the admin contact email address for the domain.

Whois Privacy is available according to the rules of the registry for particular domain extensions. For instance, .ca domains allow individual registrants to use Privacy, but organizations and businesses may not.