> I can also easily imagine it to be illegal and wildly unrealistic behaviour for a prosecutor

It's not [1]. There's no safeguards on information available for purchase like this. The US has very little in the way of digital privacy laws.

> especially data that is seemingly illegally obtained.

That's the thing, it's not illegal to sell private data. It's not illegal for prosecutors and cops to buy private data.

It definitely feels like it should be, so I get why you'd think that. Feels aren't the legal code.

[1] https://www.npr.org/2026/03/25/nx-s1-5752369/ice-surveillanc...

> it's not illegal to sell private data

In this case, though not covered by HIPAA, it's also not clear there was legal consent to sell this information given it was against their privacy policy.