What information do I have to provide when registering a domain name?

ICANN, the agency who regulates domain name registration, requires that registrars collect full contact information from a domain customer for the registrant, administrative, technical, and billing domain contacts. This contact information includes:

• Name
• Physical Address
• City, State, Zip
• Country
• Phone Number
• Fax Number
• Email Address

This information is then made publicly available via domain whois records for anyone who wishes to look up the domain record. This information is supposed to be available for the purpose of providing technical support or resolving domain disputes.

Due to the growing concerns of privacy on the internet, many domain registrars have started offering a private domain registration service for an additional fee. These private domain registrations still require the domain registrar to collect and hold the above information on file, however it does block the information from being see publicly in the whois records. If privacy is a concern then you should contact your domain registrar about any private domain registration services they might offer.