An Internet records listing that identifies who owns a domain. WHOIS records are an extremely useful and essential resource for maintaining the integrity of the domain name registration and ownership process. A WHOIS record contains all of the contact information associated with the person, group, or company that registers a particular domain name. Typically, each WHOIS record will contain information, such as the name and contact information of the REGISTRANT [ who owns the domain ], the name and contact information of the REGISTRAR [ the organization or commercial entity that registered the domain name on behalf of the registrant ], the registration dates, the name servers, the most recent update, and the expiration date.
WHOIS records may also provide the administrative and technical contact information [ which is sometimes, but not always, the registrant ]. Note: Although we offer [ as many others ] private registration services [ also known as proxy services or 'privacy protection' ] in which the registrar's contact information is shown, and not that of the registrant, it is important to note that even if domain 'privacy protection' services are leveraged, it is not necessarily a guarantee of true anonymity. Registrars [ including ourselves ] may be bound by law to release private information. Therefore, this type of service is entirely optional [ since it is of questionable real value in practice ] and the decision on whether this is a feature you need added or not, to your domain registration data, rest entirely with you.