When you register a domain name through Freethought, your personal information such as name, address, phone number, and email address will be transferred to our supplier and then onward to the domain registry that administers the domain TLD you have selected for example Nominet for .uk domains. Traditionally the information you supply is then published online in the public WHOIS database so that anyone can see who owns a domain name.
Under the General Data Protection Regulations introduced in May 2018, your personal information will still be transferred to the same organisations but WHOIS will function slightly differently depending on the domain, and where you are located.
UK domains
As of May 22nd 2018, the WHOIS results for any .uk domain no longer return any registrant information whatsoever. Registrants can if they wish opt-in to the WHOIS database and have their personal information displayed, get in touch with us to arrange this. The previous services are referred to as "WHOIS opt-out" and the privacy proxy services no longer exist as all domains are opted out of WHOIS by default.
Non-UK domains with EU contact information
As of May 25th 2018, any non-UK domain that we register will automatically have the WHOIS information masked if any of the contacts for the domain are located within the EU or UK. This will be provided free of charge and automatically on all domains unless the domain owner voluntarily displays the WHOIS information by contacting us to request this be enabled.
Non-UK domains with non-EU contact information
Any domain registered through us that is not a UK domain and where none of the contacts on the domain are located in the EU or UK will have their personal information published by default in the public WHOIS database. You can choose to have this information hidden by choosing to pay for the £10/year "ID Protection" add-on available on non-UK domains.
ID Protection
The paid-for ID protection add-on option still exists even for EU residents when ordering or as an upgrade in the customer portal. This ID protection differs only very subtly to the default GDPR masking in that with ID protection people will see contact information that you can then have forwarded to you, without ID protection it will not be possible for anyone to contact you via information in WHOIS.
