Opt Out Of WHOIS (Nominet Registry) Records

Hide Personal Address Details After Registering A .CO.UK Domain Name

If you have read the previous section (how to buy a website), whereby I registered a .co.uk domain name, you will know I chose to have my personal address details hidden from the WHOIS (Nominet Registry/Database) Records using an option on the registration form. This was done because I don't like Junk Mailers, Stalkers and other Weirdos knowing where I live and abusing my details.

In normal circumstances whenever you register a domain name, either directly through a registrar (such as ENOM, NameCheap or GoDaddy) or via a web hosting provider (such as Krystal Hosting or NetHosted), you are also given the option to opt out of the WHOIS Registry (Database) run by Nominet. This option is available simply because not every one wants their WHOIS Record (i.e. personal address details and phone number) made public. And for good reason too - Read this, relevant, 2006 DATA Mining Article.

Surprisingly, even with a WHOIS Opt-Out option selected, some registrars and web hosting providers do not automatically inform Nominet that the WHOIS Opt-Out option for your domain name should be enabled. Or put another way, they do not inform Nominet to update their WHOIS Record for your domain name so that your personal details are hidden from WHOIS lookup websites such as DomainTools. This could be because of a technical reason or simply because they forget! Either way, when you register a .co.uk domain name a nominet account will have been set up for you - Nominet will send you an e-mail.

When you have received that Nominet e-mail, containing your nominet account details, you may be surprised to see that it does not contain any log-in details! This is normally because you were not given them by your registrar or web hosting provider, for whatever reason(s). If this is the case for you, contact your registrar or web hosting provider and ask them for your nominet account log-in details.

These details will normally tally with the contact e-mail address and password of your registrant account or web hosting account, so you could try and log-in to your nominet account with those details before contacting your registrar or web hosting provider. You could also visit the nominet Account Access web page and enter your "suspected" e-mail address into its E-MAIL ADDRESS edit box before clicking on the ACCESS YOUR ACCOUNT button. Doing so will send a Password Reset link to that e-mail address, which is hopefully your e-mail address.

Fig 1.0  Enter your "suspected" e-mail address to, hopefully, receive a Password Reset e-mail link

When you have the nominet account log-in details go to the Nominet website and click on the LOG-IN link to the right of the page (Fig 1.1). From there, make sure the MANAGE MY OWN DOMAIN NAMES option is selected and then enter your E-Mail Address & Password before clicking on the LOG IN button (Fig 1.2).

Fig 1.1  Visit nominet.org.uk to log-in to your Nominet Account




Fig 1.2  Click on the LOG IN button to proceed

Once you are logged into your nominet account your first .co.uk domain name is selected by default, but if you have more than one .co.uk domain name you can select a different one before clicking on the GO TO ACCOUNT button. Doing so will take you to that domain name's account management page (Fig 1.4).

Fig 1.3  Select the .co.uk domain name you want to manage and then click on GO TO ACCOUNT




Fig 1.4  Click on the ACCOUNT Tab (Window) to continue

The account management page allows you to change the WHOIS Opt-Out option, known on this page as PUBLIC REGISTER OPT-OUT, for the selected domain name by clicking on the CHANGE button.

Fig 1.5  Click on the CHANGE button to change the WHOIS Opt-Out status

After clicking on the CHANGE button (above), which takes you to the Public Register Opt-Out page (below), select the YES - KEEP MY DETAILS PRIVATE option and then click on the SAVE DETAILS button to update the WHOIS Record for this selected domain name.

Fig 1.6  Select the YES - KEEP MY DETAILS PRIVATE option and then click on the SAVE DETAILS button

That's it! The WHOIS Record for the selected .co.uk domain name will be updated instantly whereby its personal details are then hidden from the general public. The only thing to do now is log out of this nominet account by clicking on the LOG OUT FROM THE ONLINE SERVICE link, located in the top-right corner of the page.

Fig 1.7  Click on the LOG OUT FROM THE ONLINE SERVICE link to log out of the nominet account