.be domain names are anonymous by default

In a remarkable move to protect the privacy of its customers, DNS Belgium (the administrator of the .be top level domain) is hiding the names and addresses of all private persons in its public WHOIS service. The only element that is made public of the owner (or "licensees" as they call them) is the email address, which can of course be chosen in such a way as not to divulge any name.



For organizations, the name, address, phone and fax numbers are still made public.


The WHOIS service where anyone can find the identity of a domain name owner was originally conceived to provide contact information for legal or technical complaints. Will this new approach encourage hooliganism on the web? Not according to DNS Belgium, because there is a procedure for obtaining the identity of domain holders:

In order to avoid any abuses, DNS BE will provide a procedure enabling to request the personal data of a private domain name holder e.g. when starting a court case. This request will be evaluated by the DNS BE legal service. If the evaluation is positive, the requested data can be communicated to the requestor.

When you register an international domain under .com, .net, .org etc. but you don't want your name to be made public, you have to buy "privacy protection services". Most large registrars offer this as an optional service. Enom.com offers privacy protection for $6 per year. Godaddy.com does the same for $6.99. Services like that hide your name and address against spam or stalkers, but fulfill the legal requirements by forwarding subpoenas, cease and desist orders, tax documents etc., at least when they comply with U.S. legal regulations.