Enable or disable privacy protection

Private domain registration, or privacy protection, ensures that your domain contact information is not readily available to the public. In this guide, you will learn how to verify and manage your domain’s privacy protection settings.

WordPress.com automatically activates privacy protection on applicable domains. To verify that privacy protection is enabled for your domain, follow these steps:

1. Visit your site’s dashboard.
2. Navigate to Upgrades → Domains (or Hosting → Domains if using WP Admin).
3. Click on your domain.
4. Click on the “Contact information” section.
5. Check that the option “Privacy protection on” is shown. If it is switched off, click the toggle to turn on privacy protection for your domain.

Note: Some registries (e.g., .dev domains) do not allow privacy protection to be disabled. See our guides on domains with special policies.

To change your privacy protection settings, follow these steps:

1. Go to your site’s dashboard.
2. Navigate to Upgrades → Domains (or Hosting → Domains if using WP Admin).

3. Click on the domain you want to edit.
4. Click on the “Contact information” section where you can quickly see whether privacy protection is on or off.

5. Toggle the “Privacy protection” option to the ON position to turn it on or the OFF position to turn it off. The change will be applied automatically.

There are very rare cases where you would want to deactivate private domain registration. For example, if you are transferring your domain from WordPress.com to another registrar, they may advise you to deactivate privacy protection.

Otherwise, we recommend keeping privacy protection on at all times.

If you choose to deactivate privacy protection and your contact information is verified, you can choose to show your details in public WHOIS results. Enable the “Display my contact information in public WHOIS” toggle.

Note: If you have privacy protection disabled and the contact information is not verified, the option to display your contact information in public WHOIS will be disabled. Verify your contact information to proceed.

All domains registered at WordPress.com come with privacy protection free of charge, and we recommend you keep it enabled.

For most TLDs, when privacy protection is enabled, your personal information is redacted. With email addresses, for example, a placeholder email such as yourdomain@privatewho.is, info@domain-contact.org, or random‑string@domain-contact.org is shown instead of your actual email address.

Please note that privacy protection may not be available due to the policies of the respective registrar of record or registry.

Learn more about privacy protection.