I don't want my personal information from my domain registration showing up in a whois search. Can I delete my name, address and phone number?

Answer by:  Andrew Hickl, Aplus.Net Knowledge Base Support

If your domain was not registered anonymously, you are required by law to supply correct and current information for the four contacts (Registrant, Administrative, Technical, or Billing) associated with your domain.   With normal registration, there is no way to remove this information:  you must supply your name, address, city, phone number, and e-mail address.

You can, however, pay to have your domain registered anonymously.  Domains that are registered anonymously will not display your personal information when a WHOIS search is performed on your domain name.  Both Aplus.Net and Names4Ever.com charge an additional $8.95 a year per domain to safeguard your information. 

With anonymous domain registration, you are assigned a private email address that collects all of the email that is sent to your anonymous domain’s public email account.  All messages sent to your private email account are filtered for spam and scanned for virus infected files before they are forwarded to you.  If someone calls the phone number that is listed they will hear a message instructing them to contact you via e-mail.  

Current Aplus.Net or Names4Ever.com customers will find that there is no option to register a domain name anonymously inside either the Aplus.Net Control Panel Version 2.0 or the Names4Ever Control Panel.  To have your registration changed to anonymous domain registration, you will have to contact Customer Support at (888) 301-2516 or at support@names4ever.com.

To register a new anonymous domain, please follow the instructions below:

1. Start by visiting the “Domain Registration” page of the Aplus.Net website:  http://domains.aplus.net/index.php.  (Alternatively, if you’re a Names4Ever customer, you can follow the same procedure if you start at http://www.names4ever.com.)
2. Type in the domain name that you would like to register into the “Search for Your Domain Name Here” box in the body of the page and click the “Search” button.
3. If your domain name is available, click the “Continue” button found on the next page.  If the name is not available, you will have to supply an available name before proceeding.
4. You will now need to specify the terms of your registration for this domain.  First, supply the length of the registration from the “Registration Period” drop-down menu.
5. To specify privacy protection, click the “Yes” radio button following the “Do you want privacy protection?” question.
6. Next, specify how you want to attach hosting to this registered domain.  If you would like to sign up for a new hosting plan, click one of the Aplus.Net hosting plans listed beneath “Add Web Hosting to this Domain Name”.  If you would like to have it parked on your existing hosting plan, click “Park this Domain”.  If you would like to have this domain forwarded to another registered and hosted domain, click “Forward this Domain”.  Finally, if you remain undecided, you can still register this domain – simply click, “I will decide later” to leave your options open.
7. Click “Continue” to finalize your registration.
8. If you are an existing customer, please enter your Aplus.Net (or Names4Ever) Registration Number and Customer Password.  If you are a new customer – or if you’d like to have this domain associated with a new Registration Number, then, fill in the “Customer Information” fields found in the lower portion of the page.
9. Finish the registration by supplying payment information.