What WHOIS is and why your details end up public

WHOIS is the public directory of domain registration records. Historically, every registrant's name, postal address, email and phone number were published so that anyone could identify who owns a domain — useful for accountability, but a gift to spammers and scammers.

When you register a name, the registrar submits your contact details to the registry. Without privacy, some or all of those details are then queryable by anyone via a WHOIS lookup or the registry's web tool.

Two things have changed the picture: - GDPR (2018) forced registries and registrars to stop publishing personal data of individuals by default across most gTLDs. - WHOIS Privacy / proxy services replace your details with the provider's, for cases where data would otherwise be shown.

The upshot: for individuals, much personal data is now redacted automatically, but a privacy service ensures consistent protection across TLDs and covers cases (such as organisations, or registries with different rules) where redaction isn't automatic.