What a UK WHOIS record shows since GDPR

Until 2018 a WHOIS lookup on a .uk domain returned the registrant's name, postal address and often a phone number. The General Data Protection Regulation changed that. Nominet, which runs the .uk registry, now publishes personal contact data only where the registrant has opted in, and most registrars redact it by default.

What you still get

A registry record for a .uk name reliably contains:

• The registrar (Nominet calls this the tag holder) and its IPS tag, the short code used when a domain moves between registrars.
• Key dates: when the domain was registered, last updated and when it expires.
• Nameservers delegated for the domain.
• Status codes such as clientTransferProhibited that describe locks and pending operations.
• Data validation: whether Nominet was able to match the registrant's name and address against a third-party source, which is a useful trust signal even when the details themselves are hidden.
• Registrant type: an individual, a UK company, a charity and so on, sometimes with a company number.

What is withheld

Name, address, email and phone of a private individual. Organisations are treated differently: a company's name and registered address are business data and are often published.

Why this matters for you

If you are trying to contact a domain owner, use the registrar's abuse or contact channel, both shown on our Registry facet, rather than searching for the person. If you own a domain, the same rules protect you, but they also mean your registrar's records must be correct: expiry reminders go to the contact on file, which nobody outside the registrar can see.

RDAP, not WHOIS

Nominet's text-based WHOIS service closes in February 2027. Its replacement, RDAP, returns the same public data in a structured format. Everything on whois.me.uk is RDAP-first, with the legacy text shown alongside while it lasts.