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by r721 1176 days ago
Haveibeenpwned.com's owner (Troy Hunt) marks some breaches as sensitive, and you can't check email addresses for inclusion in them without an access to email itself.

"What is a "sensitive breach"?

HIBP enables you to discover if your account was exposed in most of the data breaches by directly searching the system. However, certain breaches are particularly sensitive in that someone's presence in the breach may adversely impact them if others are able to find that they were a member of the site. These breaches are classed as "sensitive" and may not be publicly searched.

A sensitive data breach can only be searched by the verified owner of the email address being searched for. This is done via the notification system which involves sending a verification email to the address with a unique link. When that link is followed, the owner of the address will see all data breaches and pastes they appear in, including the sensitive ones.

There are presently 49 sensitive breaches in the system including Adult FriendFinder (2015), Adult FriendFinder (2016), Adult-FanFiction.Org, Ashley Madison, Beautiful People, Bestialitysextaboo, Brazzers, Carding Mafia (December 2021), Carding Mafia (March 2021), CrimeAgency vBulletin Hacks, CTARS, CyberServe, Doxbin, Emotet, Fling, Florida Virtual School, Freedom Hosting II, Fridae, Fur Affinity, Gab and 29 more."

https://haveibeenpwned.com/FAQs#SensitiveBreach