It’s not yet clear how the FBI collected the video. Experts said in some cases it’s possible to collect data from the complex infrastructure that has enabled cloud-based cameras.

It’s not yet clear how the FBI collected the video. Experts said in some cases it’s possible to collect data from the complex infrastructure that has enabled cloud-based cameras.

Shortly after Nancy Guthrie disappeared, Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff Chris Nanos said that a camera affixed to her door had been disconnected, that she did not have a subscription that would have saved video and that investigators were trying to work with a tech company on the difficult forensic task of recovering any video.

Against those odds, they were successful. More than a week after her reported disappearance, that video was revealed, marking the most significant public development in a case that has captured the nation.

An internet-connected Google Nest camera captured an unidentified person in a mask and gloves and carrying a backpack and a gun approaching Guthrie’s home just before she disappeared. FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau was able to collect the video from “backend systems.”

  • yeehaw
    1·
    1 hour ago

    Duh, don’t people know that basically anything on the internet is permanent? It’s in megacorps best interest to retain a record of everything.

  • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    35·
    18 hours ago

    I don’t expect the same would happen if the person wasn’t related to a TV personality.

    Also, this brings into question whether deleted data is in fact deleted.

    • Carmakazi@piefed.socialEnglish
      32·
      17 hours ago

      I suspect this is a bold-faced lie and they basically just had to ask Google for the footage, because Google doesn’t follow their own policies or the law when it comes to privacy.

    • N0t_5ure@lemmy.world
      20·
      17 hours ago

      Clearly the “deleted” data isn’t deleted, and you are right, if this were an ordinary person the police wouldn’t have done a damn thing.

    • village604@adultswim.fanEnglish
      31·
      11 hours ago

      Deleted data is pretty much never immediately deleted. For drive storage the pointer to the location on the drive gets deleted, but the data is still there until it’s overwritten. In databases it’s flagged in a way where it’s ignored by the system, but it’s still there.

      • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        4·
        10 hours ago

        They weren’t doing disk level data recovery for this. At best it’s a backup but I suspect it’s just “back end” as in “we have it but the customer can’t see it until they pay for a subscription”

        • village604@adultswim.fanEnglish
          3·
          10 hours ago

          From what I’ve read they were doing disk level data recovery, just across multiple servers.

          And they specifically say video from before you subscribe isn’t available when you subscribe. I thought it was dumb because that’s an easy selling point.

          • dondelelcaro@lemmy.world
            1·
            5 hours ago

            I don’t know the details, but I’d expect an object store was being used (GCP Cloud Storage) and then the question is what the object retention policy is on each stage of the processing pipeline. It’s possible that they had to go to the underlying storage, but it probably didn’t even take that.

    • Doug Holland@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      17 hours ago

      Yup, our ‘security’ comes from being unimportant nobodies. If for any reason The Powers That Be want to see ‘security’ footage, they’ll find a way.