.privacy
Is .privacy a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .privacy in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. Identity Digital named .privacy as a backup string for its .identity application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Equs, Inc. named .privacy as a backup string for its .equs application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A meaningful word for privacy tools and compliance services, but most such projects will likely still prefer .com as their main address.
privacy-tech vendors (VPNs, encrypted messaging, tracker blockers), data-protection consultancies and DPO services, and companies wanting a dedicated address for privacy notices and preference centers
No applications recorded for this TLD yet.
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .equs application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .identity application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
The 2012 applications making the most similar bet. Chosen by AI from every string in that round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet almost exactly: an abstract value-noun that names a whole vendor industry's own promise, pitched as the category home for firms whose entire identity is that promise, and it only works if those vendors judge the word itself more credible than their brand on .com.
Also a single abstract promise-noun sold as a category namespace to the trust-and-safeguarding trades, but the word is a service description buyers attach to a product (antivirus, insurance, warranty) rather than a stance a registrant adopts as identity, so the demand side is thinner.
The same structural bet - a condition-noun that an industry and its regulators treat as a virtue - where success depends on the word reading as a mark of compliance rather than a generic adjective, though its buyers are industrial and workplace rather than a consumer-facing rights movement.
What a .privacy domain is
.privacy is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. Nobody has applied for .privacy in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .privacy domain extension real yet?
.privacy is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. Nobody has applied for it on the public record; the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round is the process that would decide whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .privacy domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .privacy name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .privacy was .security, delegated on 17 September 2015.
Is .privacy a real TLD?
Not yet. .privacy is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .privacy as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
“EI2634T-T12033 · Equs, Inc. · replacement string of .equs · Deactivated TT2652T-T52120 · Toddler Logic, LLC · replacement string of .identity · Deactivated”ICANN
“TT2652T-T67958 · Toddler Logic, LLC · replacement string of .nav”ICANN
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited. The string is a real English word with a growing commercial and regulatory meaning: privacy-preserving software, data-protection consulting, and the privacy-notice pages that most companies now maintain. That gives it a plausible end-use niche and a clearer semantic signal than most 2026-round strings. It is not in the 50-69 band because, by analogy (flagged as analogy) with earlier word-TLDs aimed at a professional or thematic niche such as .security, .legal and .trust, demand in such namespaces has tended to be modest and registration-driven rather than identity-driven: vendors use them for redirects or campaign addresses while their primary identity remains a .com, and aftermarket activity stays thin. A privacy-tech brand on x.privacy also reads slightly oddly as a company name, which limits primary-identity use to a small set of pure-play privacy products and advocacy projects. It is not in the 10-29 band because the demand is not event-driven or joke-like: regulatory pressure on data protection is persistent, privacy products are an established commercial category, and a company.privacy address for notices and consent centers is a reasonable, durable utility use that could sustain steady registrations over the next 5 years. The record shows two applications, both deactivated and both filed as replacement strings for other primary applications (.equs and .identity), with a contention count of 0; stated neutrally, this suggests the string was a secondary choice for both applicants, which informs adoption likelihood only insofar as no applicant has yet made it a flagship namespace. Registration volume, pricing and comparable-TLD counts are unknown and not asserted. Main market uncertainty: whether privacy-focused product companies adopt the TLD as a primary identity in meaningful numbers, or whether use settles into defensive and redirect registrations by larger companies protecting their brand plus privacy.