Cybersecurity engineer warns Seattle’s camera system is one merger away from a nationwide dragnet

‘This vendor needs to go’: Cybersecurity engineer warns Seattle’s camera system is one merger away from a nationwide dragnet

Williams, who recently toured the Seattle Police Department’s Real-Time Crime Center, said the city’s camera network is operated by Axon, a vendor that controls the system’s cloud-based platform. While the footage may be stored locally on the cameras, Williams said it is streamed through Axon’s infrastructure when analysts access it, and uploaded to Axon’s cloud platform, evidence.com, during investigations.

“If ICE wants to get data from Axon, they’re going to subpoena Axon blindly, and Seattle’s never going to know about it,” he said. “They’re not going to subpoena Seattle because they know that we have a policy that we don’t share data with them.”