What is WHOIS privacy and should I enable it?
How WHOIS privacy works, why it's free and on by default at Rivervo, and the rare cases when it isn't available.
When you register a domain, the registry requires owner contact details — name, address, phone, email. Without privacy, that information can be publicly visible in WHOIS lookups. WHOIS privacy hides it.
What gets hidden
With privacy on, your name, email and address are hidden from public WHOIS lookups. Where a lookup would show them, it shows the privacy service's details or a "redacted" placeholder instead.
The real data is still on file with the registrar and registry (that's required), just not exposed to the public.
What still gets shown
- Domain creation and expiry dates
- Nameservers
- The registrar
- The domain status
These are operational data and are always public.
Why enable it
Spam reduction. Public WHOIS emails and phone numbers attract "your domain is expiring" scams and SEO spam.
Identity protection. Don't put your home address in a public database if you can avoid it.
Less scraping. Public WHOIS data is easy to harvest for marketing lists.
At Rivervo: free and on by default
- WHOIS privacy is free wherever the domain extension allows it.
- It's switched on automatically when you register a new domain with us. If an extension doesn't accept privacy, the domain is registered without it.
How to turn it on or off
New panel (rivervo.com/panel): open the domain's project → Domain tab → Security card → WHOIS privacy switch. Turning it off asks you to confirm.
The switch works while the domain is active — not while it's expired, suspended or being transferred.
When it's not available
If the switch is greyed out with "Not available for this domain", one of these applies:
- The extension doesn't support privacy. Some country-code extensions don't allow it, so the owner details may be public.
- The domain is on our previous registrar. Some older domains are still managed through the registrar we used before, where privacy can't be switched from the panel. Write to support if you need it (Help → Write to us).
When you might turn it off
- You want to be visibly identifiable — some organisations prefer public, verifiable ownership details.
- Another service needs to see the owner details — for example during a verification or a dispute. Turn it back on afterwards.
What about emails sent to the owner address?
With privacy on, the public WHOIS doesn't show your email address. Important messages about your domain — for example the registry's verification email after registration — still go to the owner email on file. Make sure it's an address you read. You can see it on the Domain tab → Domain owner; changing the registered owner of an existing domain is done by support.