Domain privacy: should you hide your details?

For most small businesses, yes: turn domain privacy on, especially if the domain lists your home address or personal cell phone. It costs nothing at many registrars, it cuts down junk mail and scam letters, and it does not affect your website, your email or how Google treats you. The exceptions are a few domain endings that do not allow it, and cases where showing your business details publicly is useful.

What is public about your domain

Every domain has a registration record that anyone can look up. Historically, this record, often called WHOIS, showed the owner's name, organization, mailing address, phone number and email address. Marketers, scammers and spammers collected those records in bulk for years.

You can see what yours shows today by typing your domain into ICANN's lookup tool and reading the contact sections. You will see one of three things:

Your real name, address, phone and email. No privacy is in place.
"Redacted for privacy" or similar. Since around 2018, many registrars hide personal details by default, mostly in response to European privacy law, even without a paid privacy service.
A privacy service's name and address, such as "Domains By Proxy" or "Withheld for Privacy". A privacy service is in place.

What a privacy service actually does

When you turn on privacy, the registrar or a partner company puts its own name, address and a forwarding email in the public record instead of yours. Legitimate messages sent to that email are forwarded to you; your real details stay on file with the registrar.

What it does not change:

You are still the owner. Your details are still the registrant on file. Privacy only covers what the public sees.
Your website and email work exactly the same.
Your Google listing is unaffected. Your Business Profile and the way your site appears in search do not depend on the domain's public contact record.
Legal requests still reach you. Registrars reveal the real details when required by law or in disputes.

When privacy is worth turning on

You work from home. A home-based plumber, bookkeeper or photographer has no reason to publish their home address in a database that anyone can search.
The record shows a personal cell number or personal email. These attract cold calls and phishing.
You get a lot of "domain renewal" letters. Those mailers are often addressed from public records. Privacy will not stop letters based on old copies, but it stops new ones. Domain renewal scam letters shows how to recognise them.
It is free at your registrar. Many registrars now include privacy at no charge. If yours does, there is little reason not to use it.

When you might leave it off

Your business address is already public. A shop, salon or office with a sign out front gives nothing away by listing that address. Some owners like their record to show the real business, as a small sign of legitimacy.
Your registrar charges for it and already redacts details. If the lookup already shows "redacted", paying a yearly fee for a privacy service adds little. Check before renewing the add-on.
You are planning to sell the domain, and buyers need to see who to contact. Most owners will never be in this position.

Domains that do not allow privacy

Some endings have their own rules. The most important one for US businesses:

.us domains do not allow privacy or proxy services. The registrant's real contact details must be published. If your domain ends in .us and you work from home, consider listing a business mailing address, such as a PO box or a mailbox service, as long as it meets your registrar's and the registry's requirements for a valid address.

Other country endings set their own rules too. Your registrar's help pages say whether privacy is available for your domain ending.

What privacy never fixes

Privacy hides the details; it does not make them right. The thing that matters far more than privacy is that the real details on file are accurate and belong to the business:

The registrant should be you or your business, not your web designer, a former partner or an employee. If it is not, see what to do when a web designer registered your domain.
The email on file must be one you read. Renewal reminders, transfer approvals and verification requests all go to it. An outdated email behind a privacy service is just as lost as an outdated email in public.
The details must be truthful. Registrars can suspend domains with false contact information.

If you are not sure who is listed as owner behind the privacy screen, log in to your registrar and look at the contact details there, or read who owns my domain.

How to turn it on

At most registrars it is a single switch:

Sign in and open the domain's settings.
Look for "Domain privacy", "WHOIS privacy", "Privacy protection" or "Contact privacy".
Turn it on. If there is a charge, decide whether it is worth it given what the lookup already shows.
A day later, look the domain up again to confirm the change.

Business or personal details?

A good practice for most owners is to register the domain in the business's legal name, with a business mailing address and a business email that is not on the domain itself, such as a dedicated Gmail address used only for accounts. Then turn privacy on if it is available. That way the record is accurate, belongs to the business, and still keeps your home life out of a public database. For questions about which name and address the business should legally use, your accountant or attorney can advise.

What to do this week

Look up your domain and see what the public record shows.
Sign in to your registrar and check the real contact details: name, email, phone, address.
Correct anything out of date.
Turn privacy on if it is free or worth the fee, and if your domain ending allows it.

If you are tidying up your domain as part of a wider refresh, you can see your site rebuilt first and look at the new website while the paperwork is being sorted.