The wikipedia page shows an image of him apparently giving a public speech. If his privacy was so precious to him I don't think he would do things like that. Hence I would say this was just a little game - and he lost.
But you don't know, and neither do I. It looks like someone played this game, and we lost.
for example, if you know him, and you hire him, you still should ignore the on-line _why persona, because for privacy purposes, it is separate, anonymous entity, and you should not connect it to real person. that's what privacy should be.
Also the whole "if you hire him you're obliged to ignore any other identities you know about" is just completely out of this world.
Again: If he valued his privacy so much then why did he appear in public? You can't have your cake and eat it, too.
Honestly, I think it's better to throw out the notion of digital privacy entirely and start pushing the notion of universal visibility, and accountability. Once everyone is naked, we'll stop obsessing over the naughty bits.
I'm not saying that online privacy is worthless of course, just noting that it is quite unique.