Privacy and cookies
What whois.me.uk collects, why, and how long it is kept.
Updated 19 September 2026 · 2 min read
Who is responsible
The data controller is The Email Shop Ltd (company number 16879797). Registered office: 8 Brookdale Drive, Littleover, Derby, DE23 3YY. Trading address, for written correspondence: Suite 16-17, Parker House, Mansfield Road, Derby, DE21 4SZ. Contact: support@theemailshop.co.uk.
What we collect and why
Lookup requests. When you run a check we process the target you typed (a domain, address or host), your IP address and browser details. We keep a request log containing the target, the tool used, timings and a hashed form of your IP address. The hash uses a secret that changes every day, so entries cannot be linked back to you after the day ends. Logs are kept for 30 days for abuse prevention and capacity planning. Lawful basis: legitimate interests (running and protecting the service).
Pasted message headers. The header decoder processes what you paste in memory to produce the page and does not store it.
Results. Result pages are cached for about ten minutes so repeated views do not repeat the lookups. Registry and DNS snapshots may be retained to show how a domain's public configuration changes over time; these contain only data that the registries and nameservers publish. Where a registry publishes a natural person's name or contact details, we display it only on the live page and do not include it in stored history.
Accounts (when available). Email address, password hash, plan and billing status, the watches and API keys you create, and the alerts we send. Payment card details are handled by Stripe and never reach our servers. Lawful basis: contract.
Emails we send. Verification, alerts you asked for and service notices. No marketing without consent.
Cookies
We set a session cookie and a CSRF token cookie, both strictly necessary for the site to work and expiring when the session ends. We do not use advertising or third-party analytics cookies. If advertising is introduced on free pages in future, it will be announced here and consent requested where the law requires it.
Who we share data with
Our hosting providers in the United Kingdom; the registries, nameservers, blocklists and remote hosts your lookup necessarily contacts (they see our probe's address, not yours); Stripe for payments; and an email delivery provider for alerts. We do not sell personal data.
Your rights
You can ask for a copy of the personal data we hold, ask us to correct or delete it, object to processing based on legitimate interests, and complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk). To request removal of personal data that appears in cached registry text, see Removal requests.
Retention
Request logs 30 days; caches minutes to hours; snapshots of public configuration up to three years; account data for the life of the account plus six years for invoices as required by law.