WHOIS is a publicly-searchable database of domain registration information. If you're curious about who owns a domain, WHOIS can (in theory) provide that information. ICANN provides a WHOIS lookup service which you can access here. Zname understands that most folks don't want their contact information to be made public, so we employs a free WHOIS Privacy service. WHOIS Privacy hides your actual contact information from the public. It is enabled by default for all Zname-managed domains that support it.
A typical WHOIS record contains:
The name, street address, email, and phone number contacts for:
The domain's registrant (owner)
The domain's administrator
The technician responsible for the domain's operation
The domain's current registrar
The domain's registration and expiration dates
The domain's status (a status of "ok" indicates the domain is ready for transfer, "hold" means the domain is suspended, "transferProhibited" means it's locked and cannot be transferred.)
The domain's current authoritative nameservers
In the case of a domain with WHOIS Privacy turned on, your private information is hidden and replaced with the following contact information:
Name: Data Protected
Email: [email protected] (instead of your actual email address, our company email address is provided that will take users to a secure contact form. Once the form is filled out, the message is sent by us to your email. )