Rules for Domain Registration

Hey all - I am relatively new to webhosting, and when I register my domain names I have taken the "rules" as I read them (as given by my registrar) for registering seriously - i.e., I have given all my personal info accurately...name, address, phone, etc.. I actually started registering mine with a "privacy" feature so my personal info no longer comes up just because I started to get paranoid that I had given outmy real info.

Now the other day I happened to whois a friends domain and I found that he registered with things like:
Personal Info/Name/Address:
(his real name)
123 Street (obviously not accurate)
Syd Alabama, Canada (not accurate)
12345 (zip code-again obvious)
Phone: 502-976-1234 (again not accurate)

What ARE the real rules on this? are they enforced? Do you even have to give anything accurate/real? It seems not. I thought that W3 Consortium or ICANN (or some org) had some sort of control over this or checked these things out but now I wonder????

I was under the impression that you could only opt-out your details is if you had a .uk domain. I dont know if its possible to do it for other extensions. If you can opt out a button should be on your domain control panel.

Not sure about .uk domains...mine which I have registered under a "private" feature and my friends who's is not private just bogus are both .com

You will probably have to contact your internic i think and pay them to opt you out of the whois or your registrar might do it for free. It all depends on who the registrar is. Usually when you buy a domain you get some form of control panel in which you can alter the domains settings if you have a domain control panel i suggest looking through there.

Also if you have incorrect details when you need to re-new a domain and you dont reply within a certain time the NIC usually invoices you by mail or so it says on some NIC sites. Also if their was a domain dispute they will need your details to contact you and make sure you are who you say you are.