Why this happens
When privacy protection is enabled, your registrar hides personal information such as:
Your name
Street address
Postal/ZIP code
Phone number
Email address
However, your state/province and country are still displayed.
This is required under ICANN’s Registration Data Policy, which governs how registrars must publish domain registration data. The policy requires that:
Registrars must publish the Registrant State/Province (if collected)
Registrars must publish the Registrant Country
Even when other fields are redacted for privacy.
You can review the policy here:
ICANN Registration Data Policy:
https://www.icann.org/en/contracted-parties/consensus-policies/registration-data-policy
Two types of privacy protection
What you see depends on the type of privacy service being used.
1. Standard Privacy (Data Redaction)
You remain the registered domain owner. Your personal contact details are redacted, but your actual state/province and country remain visible, as required by ICANN policy.
2. Privacy/Proxy Service
With a proxy service, a third-party company becomes the public registrant of record. In that case, the state/province shown belongs to the proxy company, not you.
ICANN explains the difference between privacy and proxy services here:
https://www.icann.org/en/contracted-parties/accredited-registrars/privacy-and-proxy-service-providers
Important: Atom does not provide proxy services
Atom currently provides privacy via data redaction, not full proxy services.
That means:
You remain the registrant of record.
Your personal details (name, street, phone, email) are redacted.
Your actual state/province and country will still appear in WHOIS/RDDS output because ICANN requires those fields to be published if collected.
Since Atom does not offer proxy services at this time, the location displayed is yours - not a third-party company’s.
Can I hide my state and country completely?
For ICANN-regulated domains (such as .com, .net, .org), state/province (if applicable) and country cannot be fully hidden under current ICANN policy.
If your country does not use state/province subdivisions, that field may appear blank. Otherwise, it must be published if collected.
If you have further questions about how Atom’s privacy settings work, please contact Atom support for assistance.