What it means
WHOIS is the public record of a domain's registration, queryable by anyone. It shows which registrar holds the name, when it was first registered, when it expires, which nameservers it uses, and a set of status codes describing what can currently be done with it. Where privacy is not enabled it also shows the registrant's contact details.
What privacy changes
Most registrars now include WHOIS privacy at no cost, which substitutes the privacy service's details for the registrant's. Everything structural stays visible: the registrar, the dates, the nameservers, the status codes. So privacy prevents you confirming who owns a name, but not the facts about the name itself. It is standard practice rather than a red flag, and its main consequence for a buyer is that ownership must be verified another way.
The four checks worth running
The creation date, because it is the only evidence for an age claim. The expiry date, since a name expiring in three weeks changes the urgency of the transfer. The status codes, which reveal transfer locks and any registrar hold. And the registrar itself, which should match what the seller said, because a mismatch means the person you are talking to may not control the account. All four are free and take under a minute.
What it cannot tell you
WHOIS describes the registration, not the history. A name registered in 2006 shows a 2006 creation date whether it hosted a real business or sat empty, and it shows nothing about what was published on it or whether the domain carries the consequences of that. For history, the Internet Archive and a backlink profile are the tools. Treat WHOIS as confirmation of the facts and nothing more.
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