Privacy

31854 readers

130 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

Related communities

Chat rooms

[Matrix/Element]Dead
Discord

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Legality of OSINT and Data Aggregators Hoarding Leaked Data? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I was listening to a Bazzell podcast where he mentions his company self hosting and maintaining a database of personal data and credentials for use in OSINT investigations. Some acquired through public sources but others acquired through leaks. Then of course there are data aggregate companies that do the same but are going on to sell this data for a profit.

What is the legality of this? Obviously acquiring publicly available data is legal, but how are these companies able to hold on to leaked usernames, passwords, and other confidential personal information. Especially those that were initially acquired through illegal means?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Indeed I don't know enough about the EU or GDPR to say definitively, but I know for the US, there is generally nothing wrong with possessing leaked data, or it would not be so commonplace. There are often many online articles that discuss leaked data in depth, so you know they have it, and nobody is suing them for it. The NPD leak check site also appears to be legal and hasn't been challenged to my knowledge, and it even gives out people's complete address history and phone numbers, as well as partial SSN and DOB. There are also sites that regularly host "doxx" of people they like to make fun of, as well as leaked corporate IP, for years, and nothing has happened to them either.