Asmallorange:
Domain privacy or WHOIS protection (different registrars sometimes refer to it by different names) hides the domain registrant’s personal information from the public WHOIS database.
WHOIS is an organization that manages all data regarding domain registration. All registrant details are considered public information, in addition to the nameservers and other simple details regarding domain registrations (e.g. registration, renewal, and expiry dates).
If someone knows a registered domain name, they can enter it into any WHOIS search tool on the web to retrieve this public information. With privacy protection in place, all of this information becomes masked.
This includes hiding your personal name, address, phone, email, and business name. Instead, a generic registrar-generated information set is displayed.
If you don’t want all your personal data exposed to the world you need domain privacy protection. WhoIs privacy protection is a service that will keep your personal data hidden and therefore safe.
Without WhoIs privacy protection your information is out there for the world to have access to and to manipulate. This becomes an issue when you start getting unwanted emails from scammers, sales people and even those who want to hijack your domain.
Do yourself a favor and always get domain privacy protection. It’s a small step to ensure that your personal information is safe and not in the hands of hackers and scammers.