São Paulo Surveillance Network Exposed for 11 Months

Access data for São Paulo’s Smart Sampa surveillance network remained exposed on the open internet for about 11 months, opening a route to live images from more than 58,000 cameras. The network monitors streets, schools, daycare centres and hospitals. City officials confirmed a leak, blamed one security agent and denied a system flaw. State prosecutors announced an inquiry on Oct. 20.

Who Had Access

Reporters used leaked material to create an interface that displayed camera images on a map of the city. During a test on Oct. 7, they saw their own images from eight private cameras in the Campos Elíseos district of central São Paulo. They also viewed images from public sites, including health units and daycare centres.

The reported material contained 181 logins and passwords for authorised users, data on more than 6,000 security agents, and instructions for operating the system on computers and phones. Some credentials reportedly opened the technology platform without requiring a second login step. Available tools let users search by name, CPF tax number, vehicle plate and incident record.

Rafael Alcadipani, a public-security professor at the Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), told G1 that a kidnapper could learn about a target, while a criminal could find out where police cars were. A specialist cited by UOL said some interfaces might let outsiders add false facial-recognition or number-plate records. These aren’t abstract system settings; they involve images and records tied to people moving through ordinary public places.

The City’s Version

São Paulo city hall said one of more than 7,500 security agents committed an illegal act, rather than a system failure. Officials said they identified and suspended the agent, who faced an investigation by the internal affairs office of the Guarda Civil Metropolitana (GCM), the municipal guard.

The city said it took the data repository offline and that the repository didn’t contain access passwords, contradicting the report’s account of 181 credentials. Officials said they had added unique passwords, two-factor login and SMS codes for creating new passwords. City hall also accused UOL of acting irresponsibly and misleading the public by calling the incident a security failure.

City hall said no one had improperly used the platform, that the municipal audit court oversaw the programme, and that officials sent prosecutors a transparency report every six months. It said cameras in public buildings cover common areas, not consulting rooms or care areas. Capturing an image doesn’t mean the system registered or identified a person.

A Costly System, Unsettled Questions

Veja reported that Sentinelx handles Smart Sampa’s technology platform and joined the Smart City SP consortium, which holds a R$588 million (about US$117 million) contract with the city. Sentinelx replaced Camerite in the consortium through an amendment signed in January 2026. According to Veja, the contract makes the contractor responsible for system security and requires it to report abnormal events within 24 hours, with fines for breaches. The report found no statement from Sentinelx.

Olhar Digital reported that the city can’t access the facial-recognition source code or artificial-intelligence models and doesn’t independently audit the algorithms. G1 put the programme’s running cost at about R$10 million a month (about US$2 million). The city says Smart Sampa has helped capture 3,628 fugitives and locate 284 missing people. But a Centre for Security and Citizenship Studies (CESeC) study, titled “Smart Sampa vigia, mas não protege,” found no statistically significant drop in thefts, robberies or homicides between March 2024 and April 2025. The city disputes that finding.

Olhar Digital also reported that facial-recognition alerts led police to take 268 people to police stations between November 2024 and May 2026; officers then released them. In 75 cases, identification was inconsistent; in 181, warrants were outdated; and in 12, registration problems arose.

The leak surfaced five days before the Oct. 25 runoff between Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL) and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party (PT). Flávio Bolsonaro’s government plan promises a national facial-recognition system inspired by Smart Sampa and the state government’s “Muralha Paulista,” with more than 1 million new cameras. Mayor Ricardo Nunes of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) runs Smart Sampa, not the federal government. The report found no response from the Bolsonaro campaign to the leak.

The network brings together public and private cameras, including those belonging to condominiums and shops. Terra reported that some agreements retain recordings for up to 14 days. Officials haven’t said where the data repository was hosted, who put it online, whether anyone besides UOL used the credentials, or when the access data stopped working. It’s also unknown whether prosecutors will examine the contractor as well as the agent, or whether the national data-protection authority will act. The inquiry is not a finding of wrongdoing by the city or any person.