ICANN, the governing body for most Internet domain names, requires that the contact details of your domain name be publicly available. As a result, your contact information is stored on “whois” servers where your information is available to anyone with an Internet connection.

If you’re thinking that opens you up to potential identity theft and an influx of spam you’d be right. In fact, anyone who has registered a domain name knows that shortly after creating the domain, you are often inundated with spam, telesales, and junk mail.

Spammers set up automated robots that scrape whois contact records, gathering contacts and email addresses in order to advise you of your recent lottery win, advise you of your surprise inheritance, or help you to last for hours in bed.

There is a solution. In an effort to combat these pitfalls, some domain name registrars offer a service known as whois privacy or whois proxy, which will shield your personal information from the public whois database. Think of it like getting an unlisted phone number to avoid telemarketers. It’s often a very affordable service, costing less than the price of the registration itself.