Are private domain registrations really private?

Hello everybody, as the title says I am wondering if services like Domains by proxy really make your info private when registering a domain name. I have read articles all over the internet that say they do and don't.

One article said that people can still buy your registration info from the service provider. Does anyone know if this is true?

Would anyone recommend using fake info even if I use the private registration service?

I'm not looking to do anything shady with my website, I just want to keep my info and identity as the owner as private as possible.

Thank you in advance.

As far as I heard, not only it is private, but the domain in fact is registered under the privacy company name. I.e. the domain you bought is in fact listed as owned by WhoIsGuard, or DomainsByProxy, or whatever privacy company, and not by you.

The actual link from the privacy company to you is only in the registrar's private database, not at any domain authority.

Yes at least theoretically that can create big trouble down the road.

Of course, you are much more at risk losing your domain if you put in fake info.

If you want to make sure you won't have problems down the road, at least your real name, a valid email address, some answering machine phone number you check periodically, and your country and city should be accurate.

Your registrar can and will provide your whois info on several situations, the most common is an UDRP to get the domain from you.
Using false info you do risk loosing the domain per ICANN rules, even if it's harder to have that happen using privacy.

+1 WebProm
It's private on WHOIS only, but of course you can use fake info to fill in your contact detail, but it's not recommended.