The Canadian Internet Registration Authority has a default privacy policy where individual registration data is collected but is kept private. The policy about what data is collected, how, and when it may be disclosed is here:

http://cira.ca/privacy/policy.html

We think this is the best of both worlds. We collect enough data to be sure we can contact registrants when needed. that they meet our Canadian presence requirements, and registrants are assured of a reasonable amount of privacy. In some countries this may not work because the government may overrule the policy. In Canada it works because we have reasonably strict privacy laws. According to the policy in certain circumstances law enforcement can request the data. If this happens the registrant is notified. We have taken some flak for this policy from some government departments but we went through a rigorous public consultation before enacting the policy. A few years after the policy was in place we did another public consultation to see if there were any objections or changes that may be needed. The result of the consultation was overwhelmingly in favour of keeping the policy as is.

Kerry Brown