When you register a domain name, your contact details, such as your name, address, email, and phone number, are typically added to the public WHOIS database. This makes them visible to anyone who looks up your domain, including spammers, marketers, and other malicious actors.
Domain privacy protection, also known as WHOIS privacy, is a service offered by domain registrars that masks your personal information by replacing it with proxy details, keeping it hidden from public view.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to quickly set it up with GoHosting. It’s a simple process — you just need to check a box labelled "ID protection" and pay a small fee.
Note: Domain privacy isn’t available for .au and certain other domains. See the end of this guide for more information.
Steps to set up privacy for an existing domain
Follow these steps to enable WHOIS privacy for a domain you already own with GoHosting:
Go to www.gohosting.com.au and log in to your account.
Click "Domains" in the top menu, then select "My Domains" or "Renew Domains"?
Tick the box to add "ID protection", then click "Add to cart".
Check that your order summary is correct, then click "Checkout."
Enter your payment details, read and agree to the Terms of Service, then click "Complete Order".
Steps to enable privacy when registering a new domain
Follow these steps to add WHOIS privacy when registering a new domain with GoHosting:
Go to www.gohosting.com.au and select "Register Domain" from the top menu.
Search to check if your desired domain is available.
If available, click "Add to Cart", then click "Checkout".
Tick the box labelled "ID Protection" to add WHOIS privacy to your domain.
Provide any required information, then click "Continue".
Select how long you'd like to register the domain for, review your order, and then click "Checkout".
Provide your personal information and payment details, read and agree to the Terms of Service, then click "Complete Order".
Verifying that domain privacy is active
After purchasing WHOIS privacy for your domain, allow a short period for the service to activate. It typically takes only a few minutes, but may take up to 90 minutes in some cases.
To confirm that domain privacy is active, perform a WHOIS lookup using a tool like whois.domaintools.com. Enter your domain name and check that your personal details are hidden and replaced with generic contact information provided by GoHosting.
Which domains are eligible for WHOIS privacy?
WHOIS privacy is available for many generic top-level domains (gTLDs), including:
.com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .co, .site, and .me.
However, some domain extensions — especially country-code domains (ccTLDs) like .au, .in, and .ca — have regulations that require registrant information to remain publicly available, meaning WHOIS privacy is not available for them.
For example, .au domains are regulated by auDA, which mandates that certain registrant details stay public to ensure transparency and accountability. Meanwhile, .uk domains allow a WHOIS opt-out, but only if the domain is not used for commercial purposes.
Since there are over 1,000 domain extensions available, each with its own rules, it’s important to review the privacy options available for your chosen domain before registering.
