Brazilian AI Startup Gabriel Raises Privacy Concerns With Police Surveillance Network

A São Paulo-based startup is building one of Latin America's largest private surveillance networks, processing four million license plates daily through AI-powered cameras—and residents, not police, are footing the bill.

Gabriel, founded in 2020, has deployed 20,000 cameras across São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte. The company charges apartment buildings and businesses roughly $5 per household monthly for access to its network, which uses artificial intelligence to scan license plates and share data with law enforcement. The startup has raised approximately $27 million from investors including Qualcomm Ventures and SoftBank, according to reporting first published by TIME.

Co-founder Erick Coser launched Gabriel after experiencing armed robbery firsthand in March 2024. While the company's cameras failed to capture his attacker's license plate, subsequent crimes by the same individual were recorded, leading to an arrest. In Brazil's São Paulo state, only about 2% of theft cases are solved—a statistic Coser believes his technology can improve.

How the system works

Gabriel's cameras, identifiable by their green LED rings, scan license plates but not faces. When police make arrests aided by Gabriel data, subscribers receive WhatsApp notifications. The company recently launched Gabriel365, a free platform featuring crime maps and neighborhood bulletins built on its surveillance data.

Coser emphasizes transparency as Gabriel's differentiating factor. "Why do we think Palantir has a bad reputation in the U.S.? Because nobody knows what Palantir does," he told an audience at Web Summit Rio in June. All police requests now route through "Gabriel for Authorities," an auditable platform requiring individual officer logins.

Mounting scrutiny

The company's relationship with law enforcement has drawn criticism. In 2023, the Intercept Brasil revealed Gabriel shared real-time information with police through unofficial WhatsApp and Slack channels. Gabriel said these channels handled high request volumes and has since formalized communications.

In November, Rio's state legislature ordered removal of 400 Gabriel cameras from public roads. "We are living in a 'Big Brother' scenario without consent or guarantees of privacy," said legislative deputy Alexandre Knoploch.

Critics point to Gabriel's integrations with facial recognition systems as particularly concerning. The company announced full integration with Smart Sampa, a São Paulo municipal program using facial recognition, and feeds live footage into Rio's military police command center, which employs facial recognition software.

"Gabriel is part of a larger ecosystem of surveillance," says Jess Reia, assistant professor at the University of Virginia's Digital Technology for Democracy Lab. She warns that legal systems can be misused, citing allegations that former President Jair Bolsonaro used intelligence agencies to spy on judiciary members, lawmakers, and journalists.

Pablo Nunes, director of the Center for Studies on Public Safety and Citizenship in Rio, notes that Gabriel's cameras concentrate in wealthier areas, potentially creating two-tier policing. His 2019 research found about 90% of Brazil's first facial-recognition arrests involved Black individuals. A 2025 report he led found facial recognition spreading across Brazil with minimal regulation and no public error reporting.

Why it matters

Gabriel represents a growing model where private companies build surveillance infrastructure paid for by citizens rather than governments—raising questions about accountability, equal access to public safety resources, and the potential for mission creep. While Coser says Gabriel will never deploy facial recognition itself, the company's integrations with government systems that do use biometric scanning illustrate how private surveillance networks can enable broader state monitoring capabilities. Similar debates are unfolding in the United States, where Atlanta-based Flock Safety has faced backlash after its camera network was used for immigration-related searches, prompting over 20 cities to cancel contracts since early 2026.

Coser maintains his company doesn't control what authorities do with footage after sharing it. "Our part is over," he says. He cites China's technological development as a model Brazil should learn from, while acknowledging "there's obviously bad stuff" regarding Chinese surveillance. "Every society needs to have an adult conversation" about balancing privacy with public safety, he argues.

These details were first reported by Harry Booth for TIME.