Source: https://www.wired.com/story/sfpd-drone-video-leak-surveillance/
Publisher: Wired (Andy Greenberg, Dhruv Mehrotra)
Date Published: July 13, 2026
Relevant To: Major vendor/agency security failure: unauthenticated public link exposed live SFPD Skydio drone feeds for ~6 months; also documents Skydio X10’s third-party ALPR-integration capability
Verification Status: Verified (Wired itself blocked for direct fetch; confirmed via extensive corroboration — DroneXL, SFist, Yahoo, Hacker News, and Andy Greenberg’s own posts)
Notes: Wired (Andy Greenberg, Dhruv Mehrotra) broke the story that SFPD exposed live video from five of its Skydio surveillance drones on the open internet for roughly six months — an unauthenticated public link created on Skydio’s platform back in December, discovered in mid-June by security researchers Sam Curry and Maik Robert. Exposed: color and thermal video, live GPS/location metadata, and the names/emails of six SFPD drone pilots. Researchers archived ~48 hours of footage from 20 flights, showing active arrests, detentions, and vehicle stops, with bystanders’ faces clearly visible despite SFPD policy directing minimal recording of unrelated people. Reported to Skydio, taken offline within ~2 days. SFPD called it “improperly obtained and accessed… by individuals without authorization,” though researchers say no security measures were bypassed. Context: SFPD’s drone fleet has grown from 6 to 98 drones with 1,400+ flights logged May 2024-March 2026, funded partly by a $9.4M donation from crypto billionaire Chris Larsen; SFPD runs a public transparency portal for flight logs (not video) — this leak exposed live operational video, which was never part of that system. ACLU’s Jay Stanley called the exposure “shocking, but not surprising.” Technical note (vendor capability): the Skydio X10 — the drone model powering SFPD’s fleet — does not have a native onboard ALPR, but integrates with third-party ALPR/CAD systems; its high-resolution telephoto cameras can read plates from up to 800 feet away and relay imagery to ground units or a real-time crime center for processing by fixed/mobile plate-reading software. Relevant context for assessing the full surveillance capability of Skydio deployments beyond the leaked live-video issue itself.