auDA takes data privacy seriously.
auDA has become aware that personal contact information about certain .au domain name registrants was disclosed by Web Address Registration Pty Ltd, a Registrar of .au domain names trading under the name Crazy Domains (Crazy Domains) in connection with promotions it conducted between January 2025 and March 2026.
During the promotions:
- Crazy Domains registered complimentary .online domain names for existing domain name registrants using existing customer details and prior to affected registrants accepting the offer. Of these registrants, approximately 95,000 were .au registrants.
- Crazy Domains activated a privacy guard service which was intended to redact registrants’ contact information. However, there was a delay of between 2 and 180 minutes from the time of the registration to the time the privacy guard was applied.
- During this delay, registrant contact information, including postal addresses and phone numbers, was accessible via the WHOIS service for .online domain names without the knowledge of affected registrants.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has been notified and Crazy Domains is working to contact all affected registrants.
Registrants who licensed their .au domain names through Crazy Domains can check their domain name registration information for .online domain names via the registration data lookup tool at: https://lookup.icann.org/en/lookup.
Registrants may also consider updating the contact information for .au domain name licences they hold with their registrar, to limit the personal information linked to their .au domain name. Registrants can do this by providing role-based contacts (such as CEO, IT Manager), using a business address or PO Box, and using a business phone number rather than a personal phone number.
Registrants who have registered a .au domain name with Crazy Domains and who have concerns related to this matter can contact Crazy Domains on 1300 210 210 or +61 1 3 0021 0210 (between 7am – 11pm (AEST)) or via their website: https://www.crazydomains.com.au/contact/.
Registrants who wish to contact auDA can do so on 1300 732 929 (within Australia) or
+61 3 8341 4111 (international calls) between 8am to 8pm (AEST) 7 days a week, or via our website at https://www.auda.org.au/about-auda/contact-us/general-enquiry-form/.
Advice on privacy and data protection is available at:
Notes
WHOIS
Making select information available through a publicly accessible WHOIS tool is a standard feature of domain name systems around the world and supports online accountability.
The WHOIS service at rdap.dreamscapenetworks.com for .online domain names registered with Crazy Domains will, when queried, provide the registrant contact information associated with the relevant .online domain name registration. There are a range of WHOIS lookup tools available. ICANN provides a registration data lookup tool at https://lookup.icann.org/en/lookup that will display the results from the registrar’s WHOIS service.
For compliance and verification purposes, the .au WHOIS service is designed by auDA to allow searches of .au domain name registrations and to display the name and email address of contacts associated with a .au domain name licence. The .au WHOIS does not make postal addresses or phone numbers of .au registrants publicly available. The .au WHOIS service is available at: https://whois.auda.org.au/
For media enquires contact media@auda.org.au.
