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?
Depends. According to the GDPR for any processing of PII you need consent from the data subject or a reasonable basis why you have to act upon the data (your servers communicating with an IP adress is neccesary for your service to function). Saving the adress isn’t, so you need consent or other legislation under which you’re required to store it that trumps the GDPR. That’s the so-called “overriding legitimate interest”. It doesn’t mean “interest = money”, “data = money” therefore “data retention = overruling legitimate interest”.
Keeping leaked data or scraping it from public sources is still problematic since you do nees consent.
If you’re approached as a 3rd party by someone with data who sells them to you you are obliged to make sure the data you’re given has been aquired with consent. Often times checks aren’t in place, and ultimately, if you’re given “bad data” by the intermediary you cab always claim they kenw they should’ve notified you but didn’t.
If you’re scraping leaks, well, there’s no one between you and the data subject who can take the fall. You’ve knowingly collected “bad data” unilaterally.
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.