Most people talk about Internet privacy in terms of their site getting hacked. But one of the very important simple security measures you must take, which is often overlooked and generally costs under $10/year, is your domain name privacy.

What is Domain Privacy?

Domain privacy is a service offered by a number of domain name registrars. A user buys privacy from the company, who in turn replaces the user’s info in the WHOIS with the info of a forwarding service (for email and sometimes postal mail, done by a proxy server). – Source: Wikipedia

Domain privacy protects your private information by hiding your home address, phone number, email address that you have associated with your credit card, that  you used when purchasing your domain name.

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You see, when you build a website, you first have to buy a domain name, and every domain name is associated with the registrant’s information that is made public.

Many solo or small business owners don’t bother to get a business address or a separate business phone number, or even a separate business email address; they simply use their residential address and personal phone number/email address for their business. So, that’s the information that gets submitted when you register your domain names.

See what happens next in this scenario?  When somebody runs a search on your domain name, they will be able to easily find out your personal phone number and where you live!

This is why it’s important to pay for domain privacy when purchasing a domain name!

Most domain registrars offer this service as a small extra cost (generally $5-$9.) When you purchase the domain privacy option your private information will be hidden from the public. Instead of your sensitive personal information, contact information of the domain registrar will be displayed.

For that reason, I strongly believe adding domain privacy is totally worth it. If you don’t have domain privacy for your website, check with your domain registrar and add that option now to avoid the unnecessary risks of exposing your private personal information!

It’s better to always keep your private information safe.