Moscow May Sell Footage From Public Security Cameras: Report

The tech branch of Moscow's city hall plans to broadcast on the internet videos from cameras in public spaces and may also sell those videos to third parties, according to reports.

• The Department of Information Technologies at Moscow City Hall will purchase cameras to install inside and outside of 539 hospitals in Moscow, the Russian newspaper Kommersant wrote.
• The same department organized the blockchain-based electronic voting in Moscow and one more Russian region this summer when Russians voted to amend the country's constitution. The voting process was criticized for the weak data protection.
• Video from the cameras will be accumulated on a central server, and there will be an option to provide access to the data for purchase, according to documents. The video can also be broadcast via open channels in the internet.
• According to Kommersant, journalists found similar terms in other contracts for surveillance cameras already operating in Moscow. The Department's press office told the publication that it was just standard wording for such contracts.
• Russian publication MBK Media wrote in December that access to footage from Moscow street cameras was on sale on the dark market, with an option to get access to individual cameras or to the entire system.