The new policy prevents public access to personal information with the exception of extraordinary circumstances or through the consent of the registrant.

The personal information of individual domain name registrants, including the registrant's name, home address, phone number and email address, will now be automatically deemed as private.

The registration information for corporate domain name holders will continue to be accessible. Individual registrants may still choose to make their information accessible if they desire.

And in particular, limited circumstances certain registrant contact information may be revealed in cases involving child endangerment offenses, intellectual property disputes, such as cybersquating, threats to the Internet and identity theft.

"The new dot-ca WHOIS Policy puts registrants first by restricting access to the private information of individual .ca while providing timely mechanisms for legitimate information requests," says Byron Holland, president and CEO of Canadian Internet Registration Authority.

This protection of the Internet privacy rights of Canadians is just one of the advantages .ca registration offers, says the CIRA, which decided to develop the new privacy policy in response to online privacy concerns regarding identity theft, spam and cyber stalking.

Canada's new WHOIS Privacy Policy was determined after two extensive national public consultations with the many stakeholders.

The new policy took into account the opinions of .ca domain name registrants, registrars, the Canadian public, legal and law enforcement groups and subject matter experts, such as privacy advocacy groups and intellectual property specialists, says the CIRA.