Technology Jun 10, 2026 · 1 min read

Nearly a million passports and photo IDs were left unprotected on the public internet

Typing a few letters and numbers into my web browser, I find myself gaping at the identity documents of complete strangers. The passport of a young woman from Germany. The passport of a man from Spain with glasses resting on his head. The front and back of another man's driver's license, a stereotyp...

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The Verge
by Sean Hollister
Nearly a million passports and photo IDs were left unprotected on the public internet
A photo of a person holding a US passport and an envelope.

Typing a few letters and numbers into my web browser, I find myself gaping at the identity documents of complete strangers. The passport of a young woman from Germany. The passport of a man from Spain with glasses resting on his head. The front and back of another man's driver's license, a stereotypically goofy expression on his face.

They were all sitting unprotected at public URLs, with no password or access control of any sort. If I sent you a link, you could have looked at someone's passport.

"We have to do something about it as fast as possible, because people will find this and resell it. It will do damage," Sammy Azdoufal told me i …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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This article was originally published by The Verge and written by Sean Hollister.

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