I Paid for ‘Domain Privacy’ Without Knowing What It Was. Should You?

When I bought my domain for my freelance writing business, the registration page had a checkbox:

Add Domain Privacy Protection – ₱400/year.

I hesitated because ₱400 felt like a lot. But the description made it sound important: 

It protects your personal information from being publicly visible.

Publicly visible? That sounded bad. I checked the box.

I paid the extra ₱400 but  didn’t really understand what I bought, but it seemed like something I needed.

Six months later, I finally learned what domain privacy actually does. And whether I actually needed it.

What I Didn’t Know About Domain Registration

Here’s what nobody explained when I registered my domain:

When you register a domain, your personal information becomes public.

Every domain registration requires:

• Your full name
• Your address
• Your phone number
• Your email address

This information is stored in something called the WHOIS database. Anyone can look it up.

Yes, anyone. Including:

• Spammers looking for email addresses to spam
• Marketers wanting to sell you things
• Random people who are just curious
• Scammers looking for targets

You can go to any WHOIS lookup website right now, enter any domain name, and see the owner’s personal information. Try it with a website you know. Their full contact details are probably visible.

What Domain Privacy Actually Does

Domain privacy replaces your personal information with the privacy service’s information. For example, it could display in the form of something like this.

Without domain privacy:

• Name: Maria Santos
• Address: 123 Katipunan Ave, Quezon City
• Phone: +63 917 123 4567
• Email: maria.santos@gmail.com

With domain privacy:

• Name: Privacy Protection Service
• Address: Privacy Service Address
• Phone: Privacy Service Number
• Email: proxy-12345@privacyservice.com

Your real information is still on file with your domain registrar because they need it for legal reasons, but it’s hidden from public view.

What Happened After I Bought Domain Privacy

The spam stopped coming to my emails.

Before I understood domain privacy, I registered a test domain without it. Within 24 hours, I started getting spam emails like these ones:

Cheap hosting deals!

My personal email that I used for domain registration got 10-15 spam emails per day.

For my actual business domain with privacy protection? I did not receive any spam. Well, I still get normal spam, but not the targeted  ones starting with the word we. For example, “we saw you registered a domain” spam.

I didn’t get random phone calls.

Other freelancers told me they got cold calls after registering domains. “We saw you register a new website. We can help you rank on Google!”

I never got those calls. Domain privacy hid my phone number.

My home address stayed private.

This was actually the most important part for me. I work from home. I didn’t want my home address publicly visible to anyone who looked up my business domain.

With domain privacy, my home address isn’t in the WHOIS database.

When Domain Privacy is  Actually Important

After talking to other website owners, I learned domain privacy matters more for some people than others.

You should get domain privacy if:

• You work from home and don’t want your home address public
• You’re using a personal phone number for the domain registration
• You want to avoid spam from people who scrape WHOIS databases
• You’re a woman business owner concerned about privacy and safety
• You don’t want competitors easily finding your contact information

You might not need domain privacy if:

• You have a business office with a public address you’re okay sharing
• You’re using a business phone number meant for customer calls
• You’re using a business email that you don’t mind being public
• You’re actively trying to be found and want people to contact you easily

The Privacy Protection I Actually Got

Here’s what my ₱400/year bought me:

Hidden personal information: My name, home address, and phone number aren’t in public WHOIS records.

Proxy email forwarding: Emails sent to the proxy email address forward to my real email. I still get legitimate messages like renewal reminders, but spammers can’t see my real email.

Easy to disable: If I ever need my information publicly, but possible, I can turn off privacy protection.

Auto-renewal:  The privacy protection renews automatically with my domain, so I don’t have to remember to re-enable it.

What Domain Privacy Doesn’t Do

It doesn’t make your website anonymous

People can still see your website content. They can also still contact you through your website’s contact form and  find you through social media.

Domain privacy just hides the administrative contact information required for domain registration.

It doesn’t protect you from legal requests

If there’s a legal issue, authorities can still get your real information from your domain registrar. Domain privacy only hides your info from random public lookups.

It doesn’t prevent all spam

You’ll still get spam to any email address you publish on your website. Domain privacy just prevents spam from people mining WHOIS databases.

Is ₱400/Year Worth It?

For me? Yes.

What ₱400/year gets me:

• My home address stays private
• No spam from WHOIS scrapers
• No cold calls from web service companies
• Peace of mind

What I’m paying to avoid:

• Dozens of spam emails per week
• Potential safety concerns from having my home address public
• Annoying sales calls

₱400 divided by 12 months = ₱33/month. That’s less than one cup of coffee. For privacy and avoiding spam? Worth it.

When Domain Privacy is Free

Here’s what I learned later: Some domain registrars include free domain privacy.

Some hosting companies include free domain privacy when you register a domain with them.

I’m paying ₱400/year for something I could have gotten for free by choosing a different provider.

But Truehost Philippines includes free domain privacy with domain registrations. I learned this after I had  already paid for privacy elsewhere for a year.

When my domain renewal comes up, I’m transferring it to a provider that includes free privacy. Why pay ₱400/year for something I can get for free?

The Bottom Line

Domain privacy hides your personal information from public WHOIS databases. It prevents spam, protects your home address, and stops random people from seeing your contact details.

Should you pay for it?

If you’re working from home, using personal contact information, or concerned about privacy: Yes.

But if it’s free with your hosting/domain provider: Definitely yes, no reason not to.

Also if it  costs extra and you’re on a tight budget: Consider whether privacy is worth ₱400/year to you. For me, it was worth it to avoid spam and protect my home address.

What I’d Do Differently

If I were registering a domain today, I’d:

• Choose a provider that includes free domain privacy
• Enable privacy protection immediately. Don’t wait like I did with my test domain.
• Use a business email for registration instead of my personal Gmail
• Consider getting a business phone number if I’m serious about the business

But the most important thing? I’d understand what I was buying instead of just checking a box because it sounded important.

Registering a new domain? 

Get hosting that includes free domain privacy. Protect your personal information without the extra cost.