Hacker News Reader

It gives the full name associated with an email address. A more dramatic but analogous situation would be if an attacker were able to attain password info or credit card info associated with an email address.

Just because email address is known does not imply that other personal information should be given away.

View on HN

Does it leak the fact that you have a coinbase account? That seems private as well.

If someone has your email address it is impossible for coinbase or any service to stop that person from checking if you have an account. All they have to do it try registering a new account with your address and see if it lets them (as most services don't allow multiple accounts to use the same email address).

It doesn't need to be impossible. The problem could be designed away: on form submission send an email saying 'looks like you already have an account' or 'welcome... next steps' and just show a 'check your email' message in the browser.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com