Masking contact information shared via WHOIS automated access points

All ICANN accredited registrars (such as HostingDude.com) are required to provide WHOIS Look-up access to the public. (WHOIS is a mechanism to look up the contact information associated with your domain name.)

HostingDude.com supports both individualized lookups (via secureserver.net/whois) and automated bulk lookup requests (also known as Port 43 access). There are several legitimate users of bulk WHOIS data, but we also have bad actors misusing this to spam our customers.

Starting January 25, 2018, HostingDude.com will begin masking (blocking) the Registrant name, phone and email on all bulk WHOIS requests from unauthorized sources. Legitimate users already approved through the HostingDude.com Port43 Process will continue to receive unmasked contact info. This is being done to protect your info, and reduce chances of spammers getting ahold of your data.

While the intent of this service is to help reduce spam calls and emails, Domain Privacy is still the best and most efficient way to maintain anonymity online. WHOIS masking will only restrict spammers misusing our automated bulk access sources.

If you prefer to keep your domain information unmasked, you can opt out at any time using one of the options below:

• Contact our Customer Care Center
• Send a written request to port43@secureserver.net from your email of record. Additional information may be requested through this channel for verification purposes.

Note: If you are sending a written request, please review the following details to help expedite your request:

• Email request must come from the email associated with your account (email of record)
• Please use Subject Line: Opt-out of WHOIS masking
• In the Body of the email, please provide the following:
• Customer Number(s)
• "I certify and understand that by opting out of Port 43 masking, I approve of HostingDude.com continuing to provide the Name, Email and Phone number associated with all domains related to the Customer Number(s) provided."

Note: Your customer number can be found if you click on your name in the top right corner when you are logged into your HostingDude.com account, and the email of record can be found on the Account Settings menu under My Profile.

It may take up to 24 hours to process the opt-out request.

Note: WHOIS consumers who are now receiving masked data may send in an email request to port43@secureserver.net requesting to be whitelisted.