What are the experts' opinions on privacy protection for domain registrations?

Besides the obvious advantage of p/p, possible cons could include potential complications when trying to transfer out (see problems with RegFly) or the registrar charging you for forwarding e-mail or postal spam (1&1's stated policy includes a significant fee for such forwarding, regardless of whether the material being forwarded is spam or a million-dollar offer to buy your domain).

So do the pros outweigh the cons?

Hello wbengal read this:
http://davezan.com/2007/3-simple-ways-to-lose-your-domain-name/

Hello wbengal read this:
http://davezan.com/2007/3-simple-ways-to-lose-your-domain-name/

Gee thanks - for pointing me towards an excellent blog, the existence of which I was unaware of.

Of course I may be (and probably am) dumb, but I could not see anything in the above URL which specifically referred to opting for the registrar's Privacy Protection service. What exactly was your point?

A definite "no".

http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=0C3BCAD7-899C-4BDB-BB1A-09A53C95F40A

If I were in your shoes, I'd ask why I think I need privacy protection.

Some do, some don't. It's a matter of knowing what you want and what you'll get
yourself into.

You could always flip a coin if you're really that hard up to decide. :D

The only reasons to possibly want privacy are to (a) avoid spammers from harvesting whois info and (b) shield your identity from 'nosy parkers'. But if the cost of doing this is excessive (as demonstrated by RegFly), then one might as well leave a record trail of the true ownership of a domain.

I think the pros outweigh the cons.