Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has commented on the recent data breach at mortgage tech vendor SitusAMC, which exposed client data from major banks like JPMorgan and Citi. He stated that privacy should be treated as a baseline "hygiene" requirement rather than an optional feature. Buterin used the incident to highlight the ongoing debate between centralized financial infrastructure vulnerabilities and the privacy-preserving ethos of blockchain technology. The breach underscores the systemic risks in traditional financial data handling, reinforcing the argument for cryptographic privacy systems where data exposure is minimized by design. [Update 1] Added additional context regarding the specific quote "Privacy is not a feature. Privacy is hygiene" and new source confirmations.