What is Withheld for Privacy ehf (and How to See WHOIS Data Beyond It)

When you run a WHOIS lookup for a domain name you’re interested in, you may find that some details are redacted for privacy. You can’t see who owns that domain because “Privacy service provided by Withheld for Privacy ehf” is on the registrant organization field. What, exactly, does this mean? And is there a way to find out the actual domain owner’s email address and contact them? 

We’ll talk about registration data redaction in general and Withheld for Privacy ehf in particular in this post, as well as cover how it works, and some of the other most common domain privacy protection companies. We will also demonstrate how you can possibly still uncover domain ownership data despite redaction.

Why Is Everything “Redacted for Privacy” or “Withheld for Privacy”

Domain registration details, such as the registrant’s name, email address, street address, and company name (if the registrant is a business entity), have always been required by the ICANN through domain registrars.

Since domain name holders enter into a registration agreement with their registrar of choice, they would have to provide personal information, which the registrar would then use to populate the WHOIS data—which was traditionally made publicly available.

But when the GDPR went into effect in 2018, ICANN adopted the “Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data.” While this still allowed registrars to collect registration data, access to it is now restricted through a tiered-access system. 

This spawned a chain reaction where several registrars began offering or expanding their WHOIS privacy protection or proxy services—and many registrants immediately employed these services to mask their personal information in the public WHOIS records in the hopes that they could avoid spam, identity theft, and other malicious campaigns.

It’s worth noting that domain privacy protection services have existed for decades. Domains by Proxy, for instance, have been around since 2002. But it wasn’t until GDPR came into effect that the demand significantly increased. 

The widespread WHOIS redaction is set to take on a more permanent tone as ICANN’s Temporary Specification will be replaced by the Registration Data Policy, which registrars and registries must comply with starting on August 21, 2025. 

What Is “Withheld for Privacy ehf”

Withheld for Privacy is a popular domain privacy service, which is offered through Namecheap—the second largest domain name registrar, as per our Global Domain Activity Report for Q4 2024. It is used to protect the domain registrant’s private data, substituting it publicly with its own.

Withheld for Privacy ehf is a private limited Icelandic company. Iceland is known for its strict data protection laws and a strong commitment to privacy rights. The legal entity designation “ehf” is the Icelandic equivalent of a Limited Liability Company (LLC). 

How Domain Privacy Works

With the ICANN Registration Data Policy that’s set to take effect in August 2025, registries and registrars are still required to collect information from the domain’s registered owner. However, it aims to strike a balance between privacy (and compliance with privacy laws) and the need for legitimate access to domain registration data. 

As such, personal contact information will be redacted by default, but parties like law enforcement, legal representatives, and intellectual property holders can still access them through the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS).

This means that, despite a significant shift in how the ICANN, registrars, and registries handle domain registration data, registrants would likely continue using domain privacy protection services. So, how does this work?

Withheld for Privacy essentially substitutes the domain registrant’s information with its own, as, for example, in the case of maysahehealth[.]com (screenshot of its WHOIS registration details obtained using WhoisXML API’s WHOIS lookup is below). For most registrants, this information, except for the email address, would be the same – that’s the legal address where Withheld for Privacy ehf is registered. 

The email addresses though, are always different. And, despite looking very fictitious, these addresses actually work. If you send an email to this address,  it would be forwarded automatically to the actual registrant. 

In other instances, Withheld for Privacy fully hides the WHOIS details, like for fnordprefect[.]org.

The amount of information shown on the lookup results depends on the registry's and registrar’s policies. Some registrars may display more information than others, even for domains that use privacy services.

Other Popular Domain Privacy Protection Companies

WHOIS privacy protection is a serious business—the market was valued at $1.64 billion in 2024. Withheld for Privact ehf is just one of the players, along with these other companies.

WhoisGuard

WhoisGuard is a free WHOIS protection service historically associated with Namecheap before the registrar shifted its domain privacy service provider to Withheld for Privacy.

WhoisGuard is Panama-based and has been around since 2013. Their domain privacy protection service works by replacing the registrant’s email address and other information with a randomly generated @whoisguard.com address and forwarding messages to the owner’s email address. 

Here’s an example of the registrant contact details of cleverti[.]com, a domain name protected by WhoisGuard.

Domains By Proxy

Domains by Proxy is perhaps the oldest WHOIS data protection service. It was established by GoDaddy’s founder, Bob Parsons, and offers its services through GoDaddy, Wild West Domains, and other registrar partners. 

Domains by Proxy replaces the registrant’s information with its own and forwards any communication to the domain owner’s email address. The company also gives users the option to filter messages for spam. Take a look at the registration details of toolmarket[.]com below.

Contact Privacy

You might encounter domain names whose registrant name field says, “Contact Privacy Inc. Customer” and then a series of random numbers, such as that of thedivinedetailers[.]com.

This means that the registrant’s domain privacy protection provider is Contact Privacy, Inc, which is associated with the registrar Tucows. Contact Privacy has a website that anyone can use to contact a domain owner. 

Registrar-Provided Privacy Protection

Some registrars offer their own domain privacy protection services. Cloudflare, for one, fully redacts registration details and offers this as a standard feature. Here’s an example showing the registrant contact details of fexyr[.]com.

Meanwhile, Dynadot gives registrants more flexibility, allowing them to choose between partial (all fields except registrant name) and full domain privacy. The registrant of domain wawrzyniewi[.]cz opted for full privacy, as you can see in the screenshot below.

How to See WHOIS Data Beyond “Withheld for Privacy”

Even with ICANN's RDRS mechanism, access to non-public domain name registration data is not guaranteed since requesting parties need to provide a clear and compelling justification for accessing the data. 

But there are still other ways. The historical WHOIS data of domain names, particularly those that have been registered before 2018, may reveal some information. To illustrate, we’ll take you through the WHOIS history of bitcoin[.]org—and maybe closer to Satoshi Nakamoto, the person or persons who developed bitcoin.

First, we run the domain name on WHOIS History Search. Its most recent WHOIS records are masked by Withheld by Privacy ehf, so there’s nothing interesting to see.

However, if we scroll down to the domain name’s WHOIS record prior to 2018, we can find more details—including the registrant name, email address, and country. 

A quick search of the name appearing on the registrant organization field led us to a company profile which contained  a name of its key principal – a person we could potentially talk to about the history of bitcoin.org, and, who knows, maybe even about  the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. While the person may no longer be the current owner of bitcoin[.]org, at least we have a starting point. 

The registrant email domain also led us to a web hosting provider that the first owner of bitcoin[.]org may have used. 

As we demonstrated, WHOIS history services can help you access registration data that was there before the registrant employed the services of Withheld for Privacy ehf or other domain privacy providers.

Conclusion

Registrars and registrars implement domain privacy protection to comply with GDPR and other regulations in different ways. Withheld for Privacy ehf is one of the companies providing those methods and is primarily used by Namecheap. 

Given the many privacy protection mechanisms and ICANN’s mandate to redact registration data by default, finding a domain name’s owner has become next to impossible. However, you can still contact the owner using the email address listed in the WHOIS record. Also, if a domain  was registered before the worldwide implementation of stricter privacy measures, it might have some historical records that can reveal some more information. You can uncover this using WHOIS History.