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..