3 ms·
Well, leak can mean a lot of things. The standard "leak" of names and addresses of people is totally meaningless, though HN "privacy" obsessives blow it out of
by cm2012 4y ago
Well, leak can mean a lot of things.
The standard "leak" of names and addresses of people is totally meaningless, though HN "privacy" obsessives blow it out of the water all the time. It's basically public information, we used to have everyone in phone books in the US and almost no one cared.
Cell phone number is a riskier one because of the opportunity for 2FA hacks. It's not hard to get people's cell phone numbers as it is (you can buy direct marketing lists for pennies per person in the US) but its not good to make it easy for hackers.
However this leak in particular appears to go much deeper so it is insidious. Police records are named and who knows what else. That is a genuine privacy issue and sucks for those involved.
- maxbond 4y agoNames and addresses can absolutely be used to stalk and harass people, and there are password reset flows that involve physically mailing secrets to people. Perhaps almost no one cared about phone books, but if you thought about the differences between phone books and a website for a moment, you'd see that these are different technologies that have different implications, and that it is entirely reasonable for people to have a different reaction. You've chosen some arbitrary amount of information where you begin to care and become interested, and decided everyone with a different cutoff is an absolutist you don't need to listen to. But it's really just that your situation permits you to leak that information without fear, and you haven't deigned to imagine that other people are in a different situation. I'd encourage you to rethink this perspective.
- charcircuit 4y agoNames and addresses are already public information in the US. It's not that big of a deal.