Middle East property developer’s customer info leaked on eBay

Damac Properties, the “largest private real estate developers in Middle East”, saw their customer database go up for sale on eBay UK for £750. This was confirmed by Damac who have since launched an investigation in to the matter.

The seller, “dubaigoods1” appears to be persistent about selling as many copies of the database; the item was reposted on eBay as “DUBAI PROPERTY/DEVELOPER INVESTOR DATABASE” without mention of Damac Properties, after the original item was removed by eBay. The below screenshot was taken a few minutes ago:

The highlighted text above appeared as “List includes customers of Damac Properties the middle easts larget private developer!” in the original item description.

This news should not come as a surprise for many of the infosec professionals in the region where data protection laws have a limited territory application; DIFC Data Protection law in Dubai, QFC - Data Protection Regulations in Qatar. Perhaps it is time for more comprehensive laws to steer the need for firmer consumer privacy protection..