Protecting Whois Data

Does it affect how G perceive your domain?

[Angonasec]

My registrar offers a service protecting the Registrant, Owner, Admin, and other info of your domain, which helps avoid getting a spam filled inbox.

But I notice that Google often refer to domain whois details to distinguish between spammers and the rest.

Is there a risk in using such services that G may see it as an attempt to hide for nefarious reasons, and so incur some alogorithm negative points?

Conversely, does having what appears to be fully disclosed and legitimate whois data give a boost to your alogorithm score?

Spotted any relevant comments from GG MC or elsewhere?
What is the received wisdom?

[tedster]

Just researching the whois for sites that rank well on various keywords I watch, I can see no evidence that anonymous registration alone has any effect on ranking.

I've never seen anything published by Google on the web about this, but conversations with various engineers at New Orleans PubCon all indicated that anonymous registration alone was not a negative in any way. They all understand the problem of spam (email, postal mail, phone, etc.) that comes from publishing your information.

[Angonasec]

Thanks Ted, I appreciate your comments.

Checking the Whois data was, I think, mentioned in one of the G patent applications, and MC often refers to it when commenting on spammers.

Perhaps it is only used in borderline cases, or when making a 'manual' case by case decision.

If I was a spammer, I'd certainly try to hide the whois data.

[tedster]

only used in borderline cases, or when making a 'manual' case by case decision

Yes, Matt said something like that at PubCon. Anonynmous Whois data is a premium add-on service for most registrars who offer it. It would be odd to make that a guaranteed black mark of some kind.