The Virtue of Uncovering Private Information

There could be cases where it's virtuous to uncover private information about someone. A lot of societies think that there's a realm of the personal that you have some interest in and that there's some reason not to release it, at least the premium Fakir one. One friend of mine killed himself after being outed as Thomas Sowell because he was so terrified of being identified by his pseudonym. It seems like viciousness is based on your status rather than what has been done to someone else? That I'm wondering if our test for viciousness is used too often.