Surveillance cameras livestreamed for the internet to see
Marketplace Tech
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 8 January 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For the past couple months, YouTube technologist Benn Jordan has been investigating Flock Safety surveillance cameras. With the help of 404 Media, they found that many of these cameras were not only tracking, zooming and following every passerby, but the footage was freely accessible on the internet.
Jordan joined Marketplace Tech host Meghan McCarty Carino to talk about how he found the footage and the dangers the surveillance system poses to privacy and other civil liberties. Remember, Big Brother is always watching.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | AI surveillance cameras have been live streaming to the internet for anyone to see. |
| 0:08.0 | From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech. I'm Megan McCarty Carrino. An increasing number of cities across the U.S. have contracted with flock safety to deploy |
| 0:28.2 | AI surveillance cameras to solve and deter crime. They can read license plates and newer models |
| 0:35.2 | can automatically pan, tilt, and zoom in to follow human faces. |
| 0:40.1 | And the footage they capture was surprisingly easy to access, as independent technologist Ben Jordan |
| 0:47.2 | recently found out. He reported on his findings on his YouTube channel and in collaboration |
| 0:52.4 | with 404 Media. |
| 0:59.8 | I used a search engine called ShowDAM, and it's used for security. |
| 1:08.2 | It's like, you know, making sure that your internet router is not leaking a port that will allow somebody access to your server or something, |
| 1:12.1 | or to make sure that you don't have an IP camera in your company. |
| 1:19.6 | And so just through some pretty basic searches, I was able to find just on Showdown alone. |
| 1:24.0 | I think we found over 60, but initially I think I found like 30 or 40. |
| 1:31.3 | And you note that none of these feeds from the cameras were password protected. |
| 1:37.9 | Yeah, I mean, once that search was set in, you didn't even have to type anything in the keyboard. |
| 1:46.5 | A lot of times you would just go to one administration interface and they could go back to December 2nd at 2 p.m. and see what was going on at that point on that camera. And then in most of these cameras that I saw, they actually |
| 1:52.5 | had a button to delete footage, which is, you know, evidence in some cases, if it's being used by |
| 2:00.1 | the police, then this would be evidence. And, you know, evidence in some cases. If it's being used by the police, then this would be evidence. |
| 2:02.9 | And, you know, if I wanted to, I couldn't modify the device legally, but we need Fox permission, |
| 2:09.1 | and they have not responded to even public letters that I've published. |
| 2:13.4 | But with that permission, I would assume that you would be able to put files into the file system as well on these cameras. |
| 2:20.4 | We'll be right back. |
| 2:23.5 | This Marketplace podcast is supported by Intuit QuickBooks. |
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