A lot of information is a matter of public fact and may very easily be made publicly available. As an example, my address apears in many landie comics, that's there for all to see, but people would need to go and look at it. I did object when 'someone' decided to post my address to usenet.
I think it's the difference between giving them the number or directing them to the phone book. My feeling was that it wasn't necessily appropriate to post someones details directly to usenet - so I didn't, I mentioned the whois.
Those who were interested to find the whois data could have asked, or done a google search. I'm not trying to shoot you down here David, but given my own personal experiences over the last year or so, I have a real issue with the whole area of personal privacy.