Even More Cameras Hit Seattle Streets In Digital Wayfinding Kiosks

The Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) just unveiled its first IKE Smart City digital kiosk on the corner of First Avenue and Pike Street as part of their years-in-the-making plan to prop up dozens of these sidewalking-dominating behemoths to run advertisements, display maps, and to emit free Wi-Fi around Seattle.

As surveillance dominates much of the civic conversation after the new Mayor’s betrayal of her campaign-era anti-surveillance messaging, Seattle residents and FIFA World Cup visitors should be aware that these kiosks are equipped with cameras controlled by a corporation that, to put it bluntly, has no profit incentive to care about you or your privacy. And, if anyone needs someone to be mad at, remember that the 2025 City Council had a chance to approve the kiosks without the cameras, but in a split vote decided the machines’ “selfie feature” was more important than assuaging fears about corporate surveillance. 

In 2024, DSA pitched a plan to the City Council to use public walkways to cite up to 50 8 foot tall, ad-revenue-generating digital kiosks. After the first 30 machines run for a year, DSA estimates the kiosks' ads will raise $1.1 million that the organization will privately use to pay for downtown improvement initiatives. DSA President & CEO Jon Scholes called the kiosks a “smart, zero-cost solution that benefits everyone who lives, works and visits downtown.” 

That’s a sort of pollyanna view of what’s at best a glorified smartphone and at worst a portal for a private company to spy on Seattle. When DSA started to lobby the City to takeover some sidewalks, privacy advocates rang the usual alarm bells: IKE Smart City could hand over its footage to local, state, or even federal law enforcement, which is especially scary for immigrants, out-of-state abortion seekers, people receiving gender affirming care, protesters, or anyone else who may find themselves in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. 

DSA wrongly asserted that “IKE does not collect or sell personally identifiable information” when proposing the kiosks to the City Council. However, according to IKE Smart City’s own privacy policy, the company keeps camera footage (apparently only still images when prompted by a user, the company claims) for up to 15 days and sometimes even longer when “necessary to investigate an incident.” That includes illegal activity related to the kiosk itself, the surrounding area, or if IKE Smart City believes “disclosure is required by law or in the interest of public safety.” 

And if IKE Smart City doesn’t keep footage from the camera, a third party partner just might! According to IKE Smart City’s privacy policy, an unidentified “third party” runs the kiosks’ “photo booth” feature. The privacy policy states that users “agree that [IKE Smart City] can provide the information you give to a kiosk, including any information that may personally identify you” when using the photo booth feature or other features run by a third party. Further, IKE Smart City’s policy works to shirk responsibility for what the third party may do with the footage: “We do not exercise control over our Third-Party Partners, and you will be subject to their policies and terms and conditions when you engage with any feature operated by a Third-Party Partner.”

And don’t take these rules as bible. IKE Smart City said that its policy is subject to change at any time and “your continued use of a Kiosk after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes” whether the City or DSA or the kiosk user on the street is aware of the change or not. 

These private cameras should distress the activated anti-surveillance movement in Seattle. Unlike the case of the Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) cameras run out of the Seattle Police Department (SPD), no laws prevent these corporations from collaborating with the feds. IKE Smart City and its undisclosed third party partners are not subject to the Keep Washington Working Act or the abortion shield law. 

Even for those who roll their eyes at these concerns, the City would fail to even half-convincingly argue that there’s some worthy tradeoff in keeping these cameras. In the case of the RTCC, least the Mayor and City Council have argued that police surveillance helps (to a so far unclear degree) solve some crimes, which may be worth the invasion of privacy and risk of abuse. But when it comes to the kiosks, the City is accepting all these risks for the sake of selfies. 

To make matters worse, the City could have let DSA have their sidewalk blight without the 1984 vibes. For example, the Berkley City Council approved a camera-free version of the IKE Smart City kiosks around their California town. 

In that spirit, Council Member Dan Strauss proposed an amendment last summer to prohibit the deployment of camera technology on the digital kiosks, as The Burner previously reported. Even though he said he received “good confirmation” that the IKE Smart City will not “intentionally” use the kiosks as surveillance, Strauss described his amendment as a “common sense measure” to calm those worries. Besides, as Strauss noted, the company could change course or a nefarious actor could tap the system. 

“Ultimately, it's a choice between being proactive or leaving [the cameras] in place so that some people can take some selfies,” Strauss said at a council meeting last summer. “To me, this is a simple choice.”

But most of the City Council at the time disagreed with Strauss, prioritizing selfies over security. 

It’s worth noting that if the vote was up today, the council would probably have the votes to strip the kiosks of the cameras. Council Members Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Joy Hollingsworth, Rob Saka, and Strauss voted to prohibit camera use. And it seems likely that Council Members Eddie Lin and Dionne Foster would vote differently than their pro-selfie-camera predecessors, Council Members Mark Solomon and Sara Nelson. However, it would take much more political will to retroactively ban the camera feature in these kiosks, especially since DSA has already started installing them.