WHOIS Privacy
WHOIS privacy replaces your personal contact details in the public domain registration record with a privacy service, and at KapsuleHost it is included free on every domain that supports it, with no upsell.
Registering a domain requires you to give the registry real contact details. Without privacy, those details, including your name, address, phone number and email, are published in a database anyone can query. WHOIS privacy is the standard way to keep them out of public view while remaining a compliant registrant.
What It Actually Does
With privacy on, a public lookup of your domain returns KapsuleHost's privacy service in place of your personal information. The registry still holds your real details, and registrar authorities can still obtain them when legally required. What changes is that they are no longer published to anyone who cares to ask.
The panel puts it plainly: "Your personal contact details are replaced with KapsuleHost's privacy service in the public WHOIS database. Registrar authorities can still obtain your real contact information when legally required."
Privacy hides your details from public lookups. It does not make the domain anonymous, does not affect who legally owns it, and does not remove your obligation to keep the underlying contact details accurate. See Updating Your Domain Contact Details.
What It Costs
Nothing. The registration form describes it as "Free for all domains, no upsell, ever", the domain search shows "Free WHOIS privacy on all domains", and the toggle on the domain itself is labelled simply "Free."
There is no privacy add-on to buy, no per-domain charge, and no plan tier where it is withheld. It is on by default when you register a domain through KapsuleHost.
Turning It On or Off
- Sign in to KPanel and click Domains in the left sidebar.
- Click the domain.
- Open the Security tab.
- Find the Privacy & Lock card and the WHOIS Privacy switch.
When it is on, the card reads: "Your contact details are hidden from public WHOIS lookups. Free."
When it is off: "Your registrant contact info is visible in public WHOIS."
Turning privacy off publishes your name, address, phone number and email to a database that is queried continuously by scrapers. Expect a measurable increase in cold sales calls, fake renewal invoices in the post, and targeted phishing that quotes your real domain and expiry date back to you. If you turn it off for a transfer, turn it back on the moment the transfer completes.
The toggle is only available while the domain is Active, and requires domain write permission on the account.
The .nz Exception
WHOIS privacy is not available for .nz domains, including .co.nz, .net.nz, .org.nz and the other second-level variants. The privacy service this switch turns on is not offered for .nz, so there is nothing for it to enable.
On a .nz domain the Privacy & Lock card shows the .nz privacy option in place of this switch.
.nz has a privacy mechanism of its own. The .nz register is operated by InternetNZ and regulated by the Domain Name Commission, and the .nz Rules give eligible registrants an Individual Registrant Privacy Option: a registrant who is an individual, and who does not use the domain to any significant extent in trade, can have their address and phone number withheld from the public .nz lookup, while their name, email address and country stay visible. To turn it on, tick "I am an individual and I do not use this domain name to a significant extent in trade." on the domain's Security tab, then turn on Keep my contact details private (.nz Individual Registrant Privacy Option). You can also choose it when you register a .nz domain or transfer one to KapsuleHost. If you are not eligible, for example because the domain is used for a business, the practical options are:
- Register using a company rather than a person, so the published details are your business details rather than your home ones.
- Use a business postal address and a business phone number.
- Use an email address that you are happy to have harvested, for example
domains@yourcompany.co.nzwith good spam filtering, rather than your personal address.
More on the .nz specifics is in .nz Domain Rules.
Privacy and Transfers
Most registries reject an inbound transfer while privacy masking is active on the domain, because the gaining registrar cannot verify the registrant. This applies in both directions:
Transferring a domain to KapsuleHost. Turn privacy off at your current registrar before you start. The transfer wizard lists it as one of the four things to do first: "Most registries reject transfers when privacy masking is active. Re-enable it afterwards." See Transferring a Domain to KapsuleHost.
Transferring a domain away from KapsuleHost. Turn privacy off on the Security tab before you begin, and turn it back on at your new registrar afterwards. See Transferring Your Domain to Another Registrar.
Privacy is the single most commonly forgotten step in a failed transfer, and the failure message from a registry is often vague enough that people spend an afternoon looking at the auth code instead. If a transfer is rejected and you cannot see why, check privacy first.
Checking What Is Actually Published
Do not assume. Look.
KPanel has a WHOIS lookup at Domains, then /domains/whois, which works for any domain, including your own. Enter your domain and read the Registrant row. If privacy is working you will see the privacy service or a redacted value rather than your name.
Full detail on reading a lookup result is in Looking Up Domain Registration Details.
Which Domains Support It
Privacy is available on the great majority of top-level domains, including all the common generic ones. The exceptions are country-code domains for which the privacy service is not offered, of which .nz is the one most KapsuleHost customers will encounter. .nz has its own Individual Registrant Privacy Option instead, described above.
If you enable privacy on a domain whose registry does not support it, the change is refused rather than silently accepted, and the panel tells you it failed. It will not report success for something that did not happen.
Troubleshooting
The switch flipped back and I got "Failed to update WHOIS privacy". The registry refused the change. Try again in a few minutes, and if it persists, open a support ticket with the domain name. On a .nz domain this switch is not shown: use the .nz privacy option instead.
The switch is greyed out. Either the domain is not yet Active, or your role does not include domain write permission. The card tells you which. On a .nz domain, the .nz privacy switch stays off until you tick the eligibility declaration.
Privacy is on but my details still show in a public lookup. Some lookup tools cache results for a period. Check with the lookup in KPanel, which queries live. If your details genuinely still appear, check that you are looking at the registrant record and not at a DNS record such as a SOA email address, which is separate and never covered by privacy.
I get spam addressed to my domain contact even with privacy on. Once an address has been published, even briefly, it stays on the lists that were built from it. Privacy stops new harvesting; it cannot retract what was already collected. Consider changing the contact email address as described in Updating Your Domain Contact Details.
I received a renewal invoice in the post for my domain. Treat it as a scam. These are sent by companies that scrape public registration data, and they are designed to look like a bill for a service you already have. KapsuleHost bills through your account and by email, never by post. Read Billing and Invoices if you are unsure what a genuine charge looks like.
Related reading: Updating Your Domain Contact Details, .nz Domain Rules, Getting Your Domain Auth Code, and Domain Renewal, Expiry and Recovery.