I bet their data is included too, for two reasons:

First, identity verification data for KYC is a little bit different from fast food or social media in that it's very difficult to live a normal life without being subject to any KYC checks. (I'm sure someone will chime in that they get paid in bitcoin and buy their groceries with cash.) If you are applying for some financial product or service that requires KYC, and they can't find any information about you, you will often either be denied that product or have to jump through a bunch of additional hoops to prove who you are. So it benefits CXOs to have their data included in these datasets, in fact if they are well paid they may well have more activity requiring KYC checks than the average person.

Second, and much more simply, one's own data often makes for a good test case since you know its accuracy.

Or the tech executives barring their children from using social media.

I presume the database exists, but some of the details don't add up. IDMerit say "IDMERIT’s systems and security infrastructure have never been compromised", "there has never been a data breach or exfiltration from [our partners'] systems during, before, or after this event" and "IDMerit does not own, control or store customer data". But Cybernews says that they "promptly secured the database" after being notified. Cybernews also didn't give the reason why they thought this was to do with IDMerit (unless I missed it). I can't quite make head nor tail of it.

It's a weird article. For one, the researcher says "they believe" the data belongs to IDMerit but apparently aren't sure. IDMerit denies it's the owner of the data nor is it any of their partners. And there's very few details about where or how they found this database. It's possibly some kind of hoax or ransom attempt? Or there's really just billions of unaccounted databases of private data just sitting all over the Internet.

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Seems like it deserves to be its own post.

The 1B number would contain multiple records per person.

For example if I (as a German in Germany, ymmv) open a bank account online that involves a call with one of these companies where they take pictures and information from my passport and check that that's me. Then I choose payment in installments on some online shop, same game. Apply for a small loan? Same game. Set up an account for trading (stock exchange or crypto)? You guessed it, another call. Another payment in installments, backed by the same bank? Apparently verifying my identity again is easier than checking their database. Each of those is another record. Potentially with a new identity document, address or even name (maybe you got married) but mostly just the same data confirmed again with another timestamp

Not all of them use the same identity verification service, but there aren't that many. And I wouldn't be surprised to learn that many are the same company under different brands

Makes sense if the ID verification process involves scanning a driver license or passport.

Edit- rereading this, you’re obviously talking about scale. The original article is much better : https://cybernews.com/security/global-data-leak-exposes-bill...

A record is not necessarily unique. Name changes, address changes, phone number changes, can all create "new" records in dumps like these.

If developers are going to face criminal liability, they should IMHO also have legal ways to push back against certain implementations without risking their jobs, or at least have a way to leave a legal justification somewhere: "I'm doing this because I'm forced to but I disagree" which is then signed by management.

Until then, you're putting the weight of the law on the wrong side of the equation, since developers aren't the ones consciously making risky decisions.