WHOIS Reveals Intimate Domain Details: Public VS. Private Domain Owners
Content is everywhere we look. It fills nearly every facet of our lives. Much like how social media allows users to hide behind identity, domain owners of websites also have this option of anonymity. For digital marketers, social media experts, and other website related roles, a trusted tool known as WHOIS, which provide certain information about particular domain names and IP addresses.
What Data Does WHOIS Publically Share?
Generally speaking, WHOIS is a database of contact details for domain registrants and is governed by a centralized entity of approved registrars of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Types of data that can be found in most WHOIS database download include:
- Registrant, Admin, and Tech Contact Details
- Registrar Details
- Domain Status
- Name Servers
- Raw WHOIS Record
This data is usually collected when website owners registered their selected domain names when ownership is transferred, and during domain renewals to ensure its accuracy. The general public can input any domain or IP address they want to know more about and simply use the WHOIS search, which will identify certain information about the owner of certain aspects of the domain. Personal contact information like name, phone number, mailing address, and name of business are just a few of the data fields regurgitated back from a WHOIS search on a domain.
Are You Controlling Who Is Looking At Your Personal Data?
Do you care WHOIS looking you up? (lol) With data becoming more sensitive and private, being in control of what information you share is essential for domain owners and individuals in general. If your information is readily available online, chances of being hacked, spanned, and mined for data increase tremendously. In order to help prevent threatening attacks on your identity and domain, depending on the service provider you select when registering your domain, for a nominal fee, your information can remain hidden or private, and your service provider’s contact info will be displayed.
While the decision to save money and keep your information out in the open for the public to see is yours, spring a few extra bucks a year on privacy security is well worth it in the eyes of many marketing and website professionals. To be completely upfront about it, an expired domain might just have been a blog, or a commercial website, for which the owner of the same has stopped paying the rent! If you do not renew your domain registration within a stipulated time period, it might be auctioned off by the registrar. To take complete advantage of situations like this, someone who is willing to build an income generating website might just use softwares such as an expired domain finder to discover a website which has in place an extra boost from its past history with search engines!
What Is WHOIS Used For?
Depending on the person you ask, the data displayed by WHOIS search results can mean different things for different people. It really does depend on who is doing the searching. For a marketer, performing website domain research, they may use WHOIS to find contact information of an expired domain or to spot an unclaimed domain before someone else does.
Several tools or websites run the WHOIS API, meaning you do not have to visit the official WHOIS domain to get the search results you’re looking for. Some third-party WHOIS providers display data differently, and some will even offer a domain analysis report. These reports are used to observe and analyze the stability of the domain server, host, and other technical & administrative issues. WHOIS as title suggests tells you who is behind your favorite website? Find out by doing your own investigative work and discover what it’s like finding domain name owners by doing WHOIS database searches.