Private or public domain registration?

[TenPoker]

Hi

This might have been discussed before, but I couldn't find anything when I searched the forums.

What I'm wondering is; Do you prefer to have your whois info private, or
public?
I'm considering making private registrations to avoid getting spammed, or having my info get into the wrong hands.
Does this make my site look less trustworthy and less serious?
What do you guys think? Private or public? Pros and cons?

Thanks

[Randy]

If I were a search engine, would I think a privately-registered domain name was more likely to be spam than a domain that made its information public?

I think I would, so I register almost all of my domains publicly now.

When I first started, I always registered them privately.

I think that having no privacy on my domains makes me seem like I have nothing to hide, which is more or less true.

[kingcobra]

I've never heard of any benefits of having it public and I don't believe search engines would penalize folks for protecting their privacy. I don't think it's a matter of having anything to hide, other than some stuff you might want to hide from spammers