Downloading illegal data is not research, particularly if you're not a security researcher. Research has ethical boards for exactly this reason. Those certain

Downloading illegal data is not research, particularly if you're not a security researcher. Research has ethical boards for exactly this reason. Those certain images you described are publicly available too. That doesn't make downloading them _legal_. The fact is you've a dataset containing personal data of millions of people is obviously illegal -- why this didn't raise red flags in your mind is curious. Edit: I'd certainly not expect police to kick your door in either, much like if you pirated a movie. My point is: be careful.