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I feel like there’s a tendency here to seriously overestimate how damaging these leaks are to individuals.

For most individuals impacted by these hacks, appropriate restitution would be $0. Anything more than that would go beyond making them whole.

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It's not a popular opinion but I agree. I live in a country that has a very extensive principle of public records, and often times these leaks disclose much less than you would get by simply calling the authorities and ask. Now, whether that's good or bad is a different story.

We use to hand out whole books of this information to as many people as possible. (phone books)

Leaking school or medical record can have serious personal consequences that cannot even be enumerated

It can, but not for most people. For most people leaking that stuff would still have damages of zero dollars.

Which is what the comment above was referring to. "Most people". Not "all people".

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