Why do people insist so much on privacy of their whois info? Wouldn't you like your name to stand behind your business? I lately have heard from some novice users that they highly appreciate having this option although they have no clue what this option does to full extent.

Many people don't feel comfortable knowing that anyone can just look at their domain's WHOIS info and know their full name, mailing address, email address, and phone #.

Although, I do agree with you when it comes to any business using private WHOIS. I think a business should always have their info available.

i get a lot of spam from domains without privacy. i know this because they mention which domain they found my info. then they sell my info.

I get mail all the time from domain registrars.
It's honestly a large waste of paper.

I'll agree that domain privacy for a business is a bit ludicrous -- especially for hosting companies.

However, all my personal domains have domain privacy because there's no good reason for people to know that information. It's free from my registrar anyway so might as well utilize it.

I guess you would like to have privacy for some specific sites but why bother with personal sites if you want them to be personal?

I don't seem to have any problems with spam being generated from WHOIS queries. If an ecommerce site doesn't have a mailing address on their site or WHOIS, I won't do business with them.

Some does not want spammers and marketeers to collect their personal data. Others just need to hide because they are spammers themselves

I fully agreed

If a business hides its whois informaiton you have to wonder what else they are hiding. By making it public they gain credibility.

Really? It's funny that registrars still send post mail to their potential customers.

Anyway, to answer the original question, I think not all people register domain names to do online business with. Some of them just want to have personal websites and that's all. They want to keep their personal details private.

Was this supposed to be "why bother with personal sites if you want them to be private?" If so, there's MANY reasons. Online blogs, forums and opinion sites are very touchy. We have a number of users that we provide hosting and domain registration services to that are located in Thailand for example. When they blog about various government events etc, having that information private is crucial to allow them to keep writing.

I maintain a few sites for bowling leagues, little leagues and gaming clans - my whois information is private as there's no reason for people to know my personal information in these events.

For a business - privacy protection is a big red flag. If anything, I use the Business Listing (additional fee) which allows us to have additional information about what we do and our business info show up on the whois info screens. Just like I will not buy a computer from a guy standing on the corner of the street, I will not buy from someone who has privacy protection.

We had domain privacy on most of our domain names, but that didn't please our customers.
We do not mind about the spammers.

I can understand people wanting to use WHOIS protection on domains for their personal sites as they don't want their full details published on the internet.

For business domains though you should really have accurate and visable WHOIS data. I'm always suspicious of a company that hides their details behind WHOIS protection.

If they want my credit card number, is it really too much to ask that I know exactly who I am giving it to?

Domain privacy is now a matter of great concern too. If somebody came to know your full name in "Who is" Info of your website, there is possibility of its misuse too. There are some instances also. So I am comfortable with disclosure of full name in Who is information.