GDPR and the public record
A European law changed what a WHOIS lookup returns for everybody, including in Bangladesh.
Updated 02 Sept 2026
The General Data Protection Regulation is European law about personal data. It changed the naming system worldwide, because a registry cannot easily publish one record for Europeans and another for everybody else.
What changed
Before it, a lookup on almost any domain returned the registrant name, postal address, telephone number and email address. Now most registries return the organisation, the country, and a relay address instead of the person.
What it does not do
It does not hide the domain, the nameservers, the registrar or the dates. It does not stop a court, a trademark holder or a registry from obtaining the full record through the proper process. And it is not a substitute for privacy — redaction is what the registry does by default, privacy is a service that also replaces the details a registry does publish.
Does this apply to a .com.bd domain?
The Bangladeshi registry sets its own policy, and the country extensions we sell already vary in how much they publish. What the law changed most is the international extensions — a .com lookup today shows far less than it did.
If the details are redacted, why buy privacy at all?
Because redaction is the registry deciding, and it can change. Several extensions still publish the registrant, and a privacy service covers those. On a name where the registry already redacts everything, privacy adds little — which is worth knowing before paying for it anywhere.