Intro to Web Hosting series

16. Can people find out where I live based on my domain registration information?

Unfortunately, the answer is usually going to be yes. Any address and contact information you give your domain registrar when you buy a domain name will be available to the public, and can easily be looked up by anyone in the world.

This usually includes your name, address, phone number, and email address.

Anyone that has ever had a domain name for an extended period has probably gotten at least one solicitation in the mail from companies about your domain name, trying to get you to buy extras that you don't really need.

They find this information in what's called a WHOIS database. Let's see how easy it is to perform a WHOIS search.

We'll start from the godaddy.com home page

Here is the WHOIS search at the bottom of the page

Simply type the domain and click Go

All the WHOIS information shows up here for anyone to see

If you're concerned about random people finding out your information, you may want to pay extra to get a private domain registration. Watch the tutorial after this one to find out more.