Mine is signed, but I never fill in the address and next of kin information in my passport.

In some of the places I go to (look under my handle and think West Africa) I have to surrender my passport to hotel desks, customs officers and assorted blokes with guns at the airport. When giving my address on hotel check in forms I use my office address which is in a different country than where I actually live.

I don't want them to have any more personal details on me than absolutely necessary. My employer and clients have my next of kin info and they can and will call my family if anything happens to me.

It's not unknown for scammers to call travellers families and say your "brother/sister/husband/wife/father/mother" is in the hospital and you need to send me $$$ immediately by western union so I can pay their hospital bills so they can get into the hospital's emergency department.

My family knows not to believe any emergency overseas calls unless they come from specific pre-named individuals.