Domains: Domain WHOIS Contact Information / how to change the domain WHOIS contact information

Modified on Sat, 27 Jan at 1:19 PM

Answer ID: 19

Do you list my contact information publicly on my domain? How can I change the WHOIS on my domain?

*Related HelpDesk article: How to Change Account Information

⬇ Jump below in this article to how to change domain WHOIS info ⬇

With the GDPR privacy policy (effective May 25th, 2018), domain WHOIS information is no longer displayed publicly, but is still available for "legitimate parties" via a gated access system.

Doing a WHOIS search (like at tucowsdomains.com/whois-search ) will still show some information like the domain registrar, expiration date, and sometimes a link to a contact form in order to contact the domain registrant.

We will implement a new “gated Whois” system. Under this new system:

The registrant, admin, and technical contact information for registered domains will no longer be visible in the public Whois database.
"Full" Whois data for registered domains will only be accessible to legitimate and accredited third-parties, such as law enforcement, members of the security community, and intellectual property lawyers.
This "full" Whois data will be limited to those personal data elements that we have obtained permission to process, either via contract or via consent of the data subject.

This switch to a gated Whois is being made in an effort to reconcile our GDPR-imposed restrictions with our ongoing obligations as an accredited registrar. As of May 25, 2018, registrant information—name, organization, address, phone number, and email—will be considered personal data that can no longer be published in the public Whois. However, we feel authenticated access to this information, in a specific and limited manner, must be provided to those with legitimate reasons to request it. A gated Whois system will allow for this, while also ensuring that private information remains guarded from the general public.

There is additional consent needed to process certain personal information The consent is optional, but may be needed in particular circumstances. You can offer this consent via an email we send to you.

We will request consent from the data subject when:

We give the option of processing any piece of personal data that isn’t essential or necessary to provide the service. For example, for most domain registrations, we don’t require the registrant to provide their phone number, but by collecting this piece of data we are able to provide a backup verification method.
The data is required by a third party, with whom we do not yet have a GDPR-compliant contract. For example, a registry might require that the registrant’s postal address be on file in order to complete a domain registration. If we don’t have a GDPR-compliant contract with this particular registry, we would have to request consent from the data subject to process and share this extra piece of personal data before completing the registration.

More GDPR info can be found in this HelpDesk article: New GDPR Privacy Policy (May 25th, 2018)

Note: When you first register a domain name, the pre-selected contact information for each of the four contact types (Registrant, Administrative, Auxiliary Billing, and Technical) is Account Billing. By default, your Account Billing information is used for all contacts on the WHOIS record.

Note: If the registry supports it, you may purchase ID Protect to shield your contact information further.

ID Protect HelpDesk articles:

"ID Protect: FAQ's"
"How to Purchase ID Protect"

How to Change Domain WHOIS Contact Information:

When logged in to your domain account, to change the domain WHOIS contact information, you can go at the top to "Domains - My Domains", click on the domain name, then from the link or the drop-down menu click "Contact Information".

At the domain WHOIS contact information page, you can choose "Account Contact", "Aux Billing", or "Custom". You can change the contact information separately for the Registrant, Administrative, Auxiliary Billing, and Technical contacts. If you use the "Account Contact", whenever you make a change to the account contact information (WHOIS account email address), it will automatically update the domain WHOIS contact information.

You can choose to enable or disable the 60 day transfer lock before you save the changes.

Then click "Save Changes" at the bottom.

Note: When you change the registrant contact information of a domain, it triggers a verification email that is sent to both the new and old email address. The changes need to be verified within 6 days in order for the change to go through. To see more information about the contact verification process, please refer to this article: "Domains: ICANN / RAA domain contact verification"

Note: When changing the contact information for multiple domains at one time, a verification email is sent for each. So, if you updated 10 domains, you would receive 10 contact verification emails. However, if identical contact information is supplied for the domains, verifying a single domain will verify all domains with the same contact details.

Note: Automatic RAA verificaton emails are sent out from info2@enom.com. Manually sent verification emails are sent from customercare@enom.com

Note: To change the ACCOUNT contact information, from the main account overview, go to "Contact Settings". For more information on how to change the account information, you can refer to this article, "Account: How to Change Account Information". Changes to the "WHOIS account email address" in the account settings will be reflected in the WHOIS for a domain when using the account contact settings. The "account email address" in the accounts settings will be used to contact you about your account. It will also be used to send reminder messages about domain renewals and expirations.