How to make your Whois info public at GoDaddy

Here’s how to make your private information public.

GoDaddy started redacting personal information in Whois records earlier this summer.

Instead of showing the registrant’s name, address, phone number and email, a Whois record looks like this:

The Registrant Organization only appears if you register your domains under an organization name.

The upside to redacted Whois is no more spam email, phone calls, and texts when you register a domain. The downside is that a potential domain buyer can’t contact you via your email, phone, or address information.

GoDaddy provides the option for domain registrants to expose their information in Whois on a domain-by-domain basis.

To change the setting for an individual domain, go to the domain settings within your account. Scroll down to “Privacy Settings” and click the button to Turn Privacy Off. You will see what your exposed information will look like before accepting the change.

To change your Whois preference in bulk, select the domain names you want to change in your domain list and click the settings dropdown. Select the option to change privacy protection.

I’ve historically been in favor of including your information in Whois so that domain buyers can contact you. My opinion on this is shifting, however. Domain buyers can still contact you through a link on the Whois result even if your private information is redacted. Ideally, you have your domains listed on the major marketplaces and have a for-sale lander on them. That gives people three ways to inquire about buying your domain without exposing your phone number and email address. The trade-off for making this information public might not be worth it.