---
title: "Who Decides Who Doesn’t Deserve Privacy?"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/who-decides-who-doesn-t-deserve-privacy--tixq8ubsi
source_url: https://www.troyhunt.com/who-decides-who-doesnt-deserve-privacy/
type: article
source: "Troy Hunt"
published: 2026-01-13T12:12:10.079Z
updated: 2026-01-13T12:12:34.089Z
tags: ["cyber", "privacy", "data-breach", "ethics", "gdpr"]
reading_time: 8
upvotes: 28
comments: 2
language: en
---

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# Who Decides Who Doesn’t Deserve Privacy?

**[Troy Hunt](https://daily.dev/sources/troyhunt)** · 8 min read · 28 upvotes · 2 comments

## Summary

Privacy is a fundamental human right that applies universally, regardless of personal moral judgments about individuals' activities. Using the Ashley Madison breach as a case study, the article examines why certain data breaches should be flagged as sensitive in Have I Been Pwned (HIBP). Email addresses in breaches don't always indicate what they seem—people join services for various reasons, accounts can be created without consent, and public doxing can have life-threatening consequences. Legally defined sensitive personal information includes data revealing racial origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and health data. HIBP flags breaches as sensitive to prevent the service from being weaponized for public shaming, while still forwarding illegal content to law enforcement. The decision protects both individual privacy rights and the service's ability to operate.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://www.troyhunt.com/who-decides-who-doesnt-deserve-privacy/>

## Community discussion

Top comments from developers on daily.dev.

**@a\_meb\_a** · 3 upvotes

> great post

**@nubprogrammer** · 1 upvotes

> nice post agreed privacy is a universal right

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---

Tags: [#cyber](https://daily.dev/tags/cyber), [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy), [#data-breach](https://daily.dev/tags/data-breach), [#ethics](https://daily.dev/tags/ethics), [#gdpr](https://daily.dev/tags/gdpr)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/who-decides-who-doesn-t-deserve-privacy--tixq8ubsi)