Waymo says it won’t surrender camera footage without a fight
Waymo’s co-CEO has said that the autonomous ride-hailing company will “challenge, limit, or reject requests” from law enforcement when it comes to camera footage.
“At the end of the day, we need communities to be able to trust us,” Waymo’s co-CEO, Tekedra Mawakana, said via interview with the “Hard Fork” podcast.
On the podcast, as seen by Business Insider, Mawakana said that Waymo follows legal processes and will only hand over footage when law enforcement makes a “valid” request.
This comes in the form of a warrant or a court order, and unofficial requests won’t be fulfilled flippantly.
"As a general matter, we require valid legal process from law enforcement agencies that seek information and data from Waymo," a Waymo spokesperson told Business Insider.
However, the spokesperson said Waymo’s policy is to “challenge, limit, or reject requests” that aren’t based on law or are “over broad. "
There are 29 external cameras installed in Waymo’s Jaguar I-PACE vehicles, making it an excellent resource for law enforcement to catch criminals, particularly in heavily populated cities like San Francisco.
Law enforcement has long tried to obtain footage and data from big tech companies to convict criminals.
Famously, Telegram was one of the most sought-after companies by law enforcement as the site is home to various types of crime, from drug trafficking and child exploitation to cybercrime.
Telegram was known for refusing to hand over data to law enforcement until a turning point in 2024, when the encrypted messaging app's CEO, Pavel Durov, said it would provide data to authorities if asked.
However, most big tech companies tend to comply with law enforcement requests for information, as Apple, Facebook, TikTok, and Google follow through with authorities' data requests 70% to 80% of the time.
It seems that Waymo understands the importance of keeping pedestrians and riders’ privacy safe when it comes to law enforcement inquiries. But is this likely to last?
