São Paulo Leak Exposes R$588m Surveillance Deal

Access data for São Paulo’s Smart Sampa surveillance network stayed exposed on the open internet for about 11 months, opening a route to live images from more than 58,000 cameras. The system runs under a R$588 million contract with the Smart City SP consortium, which includes technology contractor Sentinelx, Veja reported.

Who Controls the System

The leaked material reportedly contained 181 logins and passwords for authorised users, information on more than 6,000 security agents, and instructions for running Smart Sampa on computers and phones. Some credentials reportedly provided direct access to the technology platform without a second login step.

Reporters used the material to create an interface that displayed camera images on a map of the city. During a test on Oct. 7, they saw images of themselves 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 available tools could search by name, CPF tax number, vehicle plate and incident record. The network brings together public cameras and private ones, including cameras owned by condominiums and shops. Terra reported that some agreements keep recordings for up to 14 days.

Smart Sampa sends images from streets, schools, daycare centres and hospitals to a control centre. The centre opened in July 2024 and runs around the clock. Artificial intelligence compares faces against official databases of wanted and missing people, while also flagging stolen or cloned vehicles.

Public Contract, Private Platform

Sentinelx handles Smart Sampa’s technology platform and joined the Smart City SP consortium, which holds the city contract. In January 2026, an amendment signed by the consortium replaced Camerite with Sentinelx. Veja reported that 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 said it 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.

The city said one of more than 7,500 security agents had illegally leaked the data, rather than a system failure causing the exposure. It said officials had identified and suspended the agent, and the internal affairs office of the Guarda Civil Metropolitana was investigating. The city said it took the data repository offline and that it contained no access passwords, contradicting the report’s account of 181 credentials. It said it had added unique passwords, two-factor login and SMS codes for creating new passwords.

Inquiry and Claims of Effectiveness

On Oct. 20, the São Paulo state prosecution service announced an inquiry and assigned the case to its public-property prosecution offices. Officials hadn’t named the prosecutor in charge. The Ministério Público is an independent state body with authority to investigate public bodies; the inquiry isn’t a finding that the city or any person did anything wrong.

The city said no one had ever improperly used the platform, that the municipal audit court oversaw the programme and that it sent prosecutors a transparency report every six months. It also said cameras in public buildings cover common areas, not consulting rooms or care areas, and capturing an image doesn’t mean officials registered or identified someone.

The city says Smart Sampa has helped capture 3,628 fugitives and locate 284 missing people. A Centre for Security and Citizenship Studies study, titled “Smart Sampa vigia, mas não protege,” found no statistically significant decline in thefts, robberies or homicides between March 2024 and April 2025; the city disputes the finding.

Olhar Digital reported that facial-recognition alerts led to 268 people being taken to police stations between November 2024 and May 2026, before they were released. Identification was inconsistent in 75 cases; 181 involved outdated warrants; and 12 had registration problems.

The leak entered the election debate 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. The report said it found no response from the Bolsonaro campaign about the leak.