In the murky world of online privacy violations, a troubling new player has emerged—and it’s doing business right out in the open. Farnsworth Intelligence, a so-called “open-source intel” startup founded by a 23-year-old entrepreneur, is offering access to vast amounts of stolen personal data via a website called Infostealers.info, where a $50 purchase opens the door to a shocking amount of sensitive information.
According to an investigative report by 404 Media, the company’s flagship product—Infostealers—lets customers search through a trove of data including passwords, email addresses, saved browser autofill entries, and other personal details often exposed in major data breaches. But while security researchers use similar databases to help people safeguard their accounts, Farnsworth instead sells this data to virtually anyone, no questions asked.
The company’s upgraded offering, the Infostealer Data Platform, promises even deeper access. While this platform is supposedly restricted to certain professions—journalists, private investigators, law enforcement, and others involved in cybersecurity—Farnsworth has no public mechanism to verify the legitimacy of these requests. Crucially, no court order or warrant appears to be required.
What makes this even more unsettling is the overt tone the company uses to describe its work. On its website, Farnsworth brags about its “human intelligence” achievements, including a bizarre and unverifiable claim about infiltrating a North Korean laptop farm. It markets its data services as tools for “corporate due diligence” and “asset searches,” while completely ignoring the moral, ethical, and legal boundaries it may be trampling over.
While the dark web has long hosted marketplaces for stolen credentials, the public-facing, commercialized nature of Farnsworth’s operation makes this case especially alarming. It raises major red flags about how easily sensitive data can be exploited—not just by cybercriminals, but by anyone with a credit card and a motive. There’s no safeguard preventing misuse by stalkers, scammers, or hostile government actors.
To be clear, selling stolen personal data—even if you didn’t steal it yourself—is almost certainly illegal in many contexts. But more broadly, it reflects a dangerous trend of desensitizing the public to digital exploitation. As Cooper Quintin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation stated, “It would be illegal and unethical to sell stolen cell phones even if you didn’t steal them yourself, and I don’t see how this is any different.”
Requests for comment from Farnsworth Intelligence and its founder Aidan Raney were ignored. If you want to understand the true scope of this deeply unsettling story, 404 Media’s full report is a must-read.