Which Internet Registries Offer the Best Protection for Domain Owners? (opens in new tab)

.de and .ru seem to be similar in that regard.

Most of the others limit arbitration-related takedowns to trademarks. I would be wary of those which allow broader takedowns.

.at hides personal info. .is seems to make name and email public. .de seems to make name and mailing address public. .ru has "normal" whois.

As a Canadian, I'm not at risk for a Canadian trademark takedown and individuals have their Whois data hidden so I prefer .ca to .com/.net/.org

Well it is literally designed for that. Only downside is that you have to be on the network (TOR) to begin with.

Well, there are ccTLD registries that do not allow protecting or hiding the owner's identity. The FAQ on Njalla doesn't clarify how this works legally and if certain authorities could shut down domains when they find that the owner in the WHOIS is just a proxy for the real one. The best option, IMO, would be to use TLDs that allow such protection to be used.

why? the overwhelming majority of internet users don't use alternate dns roots, so unless you want your users to switch their dns settings on all their devices to use your site, no serious sites are going to use it. at least .onion has some use in that it's the only way of addressing hidden services.