A nonprofit website called Distributed Denial of Secrets, aka DDoSecrets has posted 1.8 TB of footage from US police helicopters.
Emma Best, co-founder of DDoSsecrets, said she did not know the identity or motives of the person who shared this data.
According to Wired, DDoSsecrets is likened to the “successor of WikiLeaks ” – a website that specializes in leaking confidential documents provided by anonymous sources. The data they have just released are videos from US police helicopters, operating day and night. The plane recorded every image, from the row of cars in front of McDonald’s to the people standing in the yard, on the street, causing many people to worry about surveillance on a large scale.
The leaked data came from the Dallas and Atlanta police departments, but they declined to comment on the matter.
Many people are concerned about the ability to record images drones the new generation, but there is no doubt that helicopters have been used by law enforcement agencies for decades. . Footage released by DDoSecrets shows that cameras mounted on helicopters can capture extremely sharp and detailed videos of scenes on the ground. Moreover, helicopters are capable of carrying heavy recording equipment, something that small and cheap drones cannot do.
“People often think of police helicopters as transport planes, but they are more than that. They carry technology that helps police spy on people without their knowledge,” co-founder DDoSsecrets commented.
The source of DDoSecrets also said that two police departments in the US are storing data in less secure cloud infrastructure, so it is easy to penetrate. Evan Greer, deputy director of the activist group Fight for the Future, commented: “This is a clear example of why mass surveillance makes our society less safe. Corporations and governments. are all very bad at securing the sensitive data they collect.”