Because of GDPR requirements, registrant contact information is redacted in the public WHOIS and replaced with placeholder data to protect owner privacy. Some domain owners, however, want their real contact details published, which can help establish domain ownership, ease transfers, or support SSL validation. Whois Publicity lets you show registrant contact information in WHOIS records for gTLD domains.
About Whois Publicity
Turning on Whois Publicity is a two-step process for already-registered gTLD domains. First, you enable the option in the Reseller Control Panel. Then the registrant activates the service by providing consent to publish their personal data.
Note: Only the registrant contact data set is published. Whois Publicity does not display the domain's Admin, Billing, or Tech contact information.
Step 1: Enable Whois Publicity in the Reseller Control Panel
You can enable the service for a single domain or for many domains at once using Bulk Actions.
- Log in to the Reseller Control Panel.
- Click the Domains tab.
- Select the domain names you want from the list.
- From the Bulk Actions drop-down menu, select Expose contact information in public whois.
- Select Enable and click Save.
The selected domains then show a Pending registrant consent status in the domain list and on the domain info page.
Step 2: Activate the service through registrant consent
After you enable Whois Publicity, the domain owner must activate it. The registrant receives an email with a link to their Data Use Consent Settings page, where they choose to enable Whois Publicity.
- The registrant opens the consent email and follows the link to their Data Use Consent Settings page.
- The registrant enables Whois Publicity.
- The registrant also consents to the relevant TLD in the GDPR section so their information can be made public.
Once consent is provided, the Expose contact information in public whois status changes to Active.
Warning: If your information is still redacted after enabling and activating the service, confirm that you have provided consent to the TLD under the GDPR section.
What data is displayed
When Whois Publicity is active, OpenSRS displays all registrant data required under your TLD's registry contract, plus any additional data you consent to process through your Data Sharing Preferences. The full data set that can appear includes:
- First and last name
- Organization (if provided)
- Street, city, state, and ZIP or postal code
- Country
- Phone number
- Fax number (if provided)
- Email address
Status reference
Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
Disabled | Whois Publicity is not active on the domain. |
Pending registrant consent | Whois Publicity is enabled, but the registrant has not yet given permission, so the service is not active. |
Active | Whois Publicity is enabled and the owner has given consent. The service is fully functioning. |
Overridden by Whois Privacy | Whois Publicity is enabled, but Contact Privacy is also active, so publicity cannot take effect. Disable Contact Privacy to move past this status. |
Frequently asked questions
Can the service be turned off and on? Yes. You can disable and re-enable Whois Publicity at any time in the control panel, and registrants can activate or deactivate it by changing the choice on their Consent Settings page.
Does the registrant consent separately for each domain? No. The registrant only consents once. If you later enable publicity on another domain, it activates automatically as long as their consent status remains on.
Are there eligibility requirements? The service is available to all registrants and is optional on any gTLD domain. It is not available for ccTLDs, which operate their own WHOIS independently of ICANN.
Which WHOIS results are affected? OpenSRS makes registrant data for publicity-activated domains available through the standard port 43 WHOIS server, so any lookup service that pulls from the OpenSRS WHOIS server returns those details.
What if the domain also has Contact Privacy? Contact Privacy always takes priority. Public WHOIS queries return the Contact Privacy data instead of the registrant's real information, so Contact Privacy must be disabled for Whois Publicity to take effect.
Next steps
- Review Contact Privacy Service, which overrides Whois Publicity when both are active.
- Learn the difference between Thin WHOIS and Thick WHOIS.
Questions? Contact OpenSRS Support.
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