Anonymous Whois: definition, activation, and antispam management

Procédure

What is whois? 

Whois tools are directories of domain name owners.

Accessible to everyone from a simple internet browser, whois tools make it possible to find all the declared contact details for each domain name holder: last name, first name, postal address, email address, phone number…

There are hundreds of sites that allow you to run whois searches, such as the site http://whois.domaintools.com

The results of a Whois search appear as in the image below: 

What is anonymous whois?

The contact details in Whois can be collected by certain malicious companies to send buyout offers for your domain name, or even unsolicited advertising.

Anonymous whois makes it possible to anonymize the contact details of domain name owners in official whois tools.

Since the GDPR law came into force: the General Data Protection Regulation on May 25, 2018, LWS activates Anonymous Whois for any natural person (individuals..). Legal entities (companies, associations ...) are, however, still required to display their contact details; only the email address is replaced by an alias in Anonymous Whois.

Difference between a legal entity and a natural person with Anonymous Whois:

Anonymous Whois is applied to domain names managed by ICANN, namely the most common generic extensions (.com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .co, .cc etc as well as all new extensions such as .photos, .boutique, .maison etc).

Domain names managed by Afnic (.fr, .yt, .re, .pm, .wf) registered in the name of an individual automatically benefit from restricted publication of contact details in Whois tools, at no extra cost. This is not the case for legal entities (companies, associations, institutions)

Many registries (Eurid for domain names in .eu, Dns.lu for domain names in .lu etc) refuse to anonymize the data of domain name holders.

If the data is anonymized, the contact details will then be replaced by the mention Anonymous, as in the image below: 

How do I activate Anonymous Whois?

• First, you must log in to your LWS account
   
• Click on your username at the top right of the page to display the management menu for your customer account and click on "Edit contact details"
  

• All that remains is to deactivate the option or activate it as you wish
  

Whois anti-spam management.

What is Whois anti-spam protection?

Since the implementation of the GDPR law, your data is automatically hidden in the Whois directories provided by domain registries. Regarding your contact email address linked to your domains, it is replaced by an alias so as not to disclose your address.

If a regular user tries to contact you via the alias appearing in the WHOIS directories, they will automatically receive an email informing them that protection is active and that they cannot contact you. Only a few organizations such as domain registries can contact you via this alias.

How do I manage Whois anti-spam protection?

• First, you must log in to your LWS account
   
• Click on your username at the top right of the page to display the management menu for your customer account and click on "Edit contact details"

• 
  
   
• All that remains is to deactivate the option or activate it as you wish
  
  
  
  
   

What is the difference between enabling and disabling this option?

If you disable this option, your contact email address will always remain hidden and therefore replaced by the alias in the Whois directory.

The difference is that anyone will be able to contact you via this alias, with the email sent arriving directly in your contact mailbox.

How can I remove the alias so that my email address appears?

If you want your email address to appear in the WHOIS directory instead of the alias, you will need to set WHOIS publication to yes on the management page for your contact details.

WARNING: By enabling this option, in addition to disclosing your email address, it will also disclose the rest of your contact details.

Conclusion

You now know how to:

• Identify the role of Whois tools in managing the identity of domain name owners.
• Understand the importance of Anonymous Whois for protecting your personal data online.
• Differentiate between the information displayed for legal entities and natural persons in Whois directories.
• Enable or disable Anonymous Whois and Whois anti-spam protection for your domain names at LWS.
• Distinguish the effects of enabling or disabling anti-spam protection on your Whois contact details.

🛡️ Thanks to this article, the sometimes complex world of Whois and the protection of your personal data becomes clearer and more accessible. You are now equipped to navigate safely in the world of domain names, while keeping control of your privacy. 🌐

🙏 Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Your feedback is valuable, so feel free to leave a comment to share your experience or ask questions about the service. See you soon for more digital discoveries! 💬