Speaking from experience: it's not illegal insider trading unless you violate a confidentiality agreement or fiduciary duty.
I specifically say "illegal insider trading" because insider trading is not intrinsically illegal. The SEC distinguishes between insider trading and illegal insider trading (and by extension, so does the compliance department of every investment firm, bank and hedge fund). If, through your own research, you discover information which is both material and nonpublic, and you proceed to trade on that information, you are insider trading. However it is not illegal unless you have thereby broken an agreement or duty (namely with the company itself, its affiliates or your own clients) at any part of the process.
In practice this usually means the information is tainted if any of the following is true:
1) you have a fiduciary duty to the shareholders of the company in question,
2) you are employed by, or contract for, the company in question,
3) you are employed by, or contract for, an affiliate of the company (such as a vendor),
4) you disobeyed terms and conditions of service related to use of the product related to the information you found.
Obviously the standard disclaimers apply: I am not a lawyer, don't take potential legal advice from a random HN commenter, etc.
Source: I used to work in financial forecasting using alternative data.
I specifically say "illegal insider trading" because insider trading is not intrinsically illegal. The SEC distinguishes between insider trading and illegal insider trading (and by extension, so does the compliance department of every investment firm, bank and hedge fund). If, through your own research, you discover information which is both material and nonpublic, and you proceed to trade on that information, you are insider trading. However it is not illegal unless you have thereby broken an agreement or duty (namely with the company itself, its affiliates or your own clients) at any part of the process.
In practice this usually means the information is tainted if any of the following is true:
1) you have a fiduciary duty to the shareholders of the company in question,
2) you are employed by, or contract for, the company in question,
3) you are employed by, or contract for, an affiliate of the company (such as a vendor),
4) you disobeyed terms and conditions of service related to use of the product related to the information you found.
Obviously the standard disclaimers apply: I am not a lawyer, don't take potential legal advice from a random HN commenter, etc.
Source: I used to work in financial forecasting using alternative data.