Also, there should be an option to 301 redirect your blogspot blog to a domain held by Google. Lots of bloggers have outgrown their .blogspot.com blogs.
There are two main ways to mask domain name whois information: 1) go through a proxy service, i.e., a company buys the domain under their name and gives you control, or 2) effectively use another entity's contact information with the exception of name, which is what Gandi does.
a) is rather risky to both parties. You do not own the domain, but another entity does. If you somehow lose the domain name or the entity holding the name goes under, you won't be able to get it back because it technically never belonged to you. The holder is also now legally responsible for the domain name.
b) is a much safer route with the constraint that your name must be attached to the domain name. This makes it so you always remain responsible for and the registrant of the domain name. It is yours.
Very much positive, for exactly the reasons you specified.
https://www.gandi.net/domain/whois/
http://wiki.gandi.net/en/domains/private-registration
http://wiki.gandi.net/en/contacts/privatewhois
From the home page, it's at the bottom of the green box under "Every domain name includes".
Gandi support used to be the best. Now that domain isn't they core and only business, support quality is falling. Fast.
I have an old account. And some point they migrated my old account. And now my domain is flagged as a business type domain, which it isn't. It is lock as they changed it themselves. When I've contacted them, they did not want to fix it. They messed up, denies it and won't fix it. So, for me, not so great customer support ... Anyway, I'm moving away, domain by domain.