更新时间： 2026年2月11日 / 美国东部时间下午6:05 / CBS新闻
美国联邦调查局（FBI）和皮马县治安部门的调查人员表示，他们通过提取“后端系统中残留的数据”，成功恢复了谷歌Nest摄像头拍摄的南希·格思里（Nancy Guthrie）亚利桑那州住宅外的监控录像。南希是《今日》（”Today”）节目主持人萨凡纳·格思里（Savannah Guthrie）失踪的母亲。这一进展引发了关于视频如何被保留的新疑问。
退休特勤探员杰森·帕克（Jason Pack）告诉CBS新闻，定位到格思里家门口一名蒙面人士的失踪录像“如同大海捞针”，这一突破是在她失踪超过一周后取得的。
但许多人质疑，为何据官方称已断开连接且未订阅视频存储服务的门铃摄像头仍能恢复录像。按照谷歌Nest的免费计划，视频本应在3至6小时内被自动删除——而这一时间远早于格思里被报失踪的时间。
门铃摄像头的数据存储方式
网络安全专家表示，尽管Nest免费用户无法访问特定时间范围之外的录像，但像格思里家的门铃摄像头这类设备内置了多层备份机制，这使得短期数据恢复成为可能。
“内部存储采用了非常‘懒惰’的删除机制，因此未付费用户无法访问这些数据，”网络安全专家亚历克斯·斯塔莫斯（Alex Stamos）向CBS新闻解释道，“非订阅用户的视频会被标记为删除，但具体实现细节可能导致实际文件数天内不会被彻底删除，直到存储需求触发数据覆盖。”
前美国国家安全局（NSA）数据研究员、隐私安全公司Disconnect首席技术官帕特里克·杰克逊（Patrick Jackson）补充道：“有种老说法叫‘数据不会被真正删除，只是被重命名’。我认为这正是这一机制的完美体现——一旦数据上传，公司可能标记为删除，但实际上可能永远不会被删除。”
杰克逊表示，大多数门铃摄像头还具备防篡改模式（tamper mode），这一安全功能会在设备被断开连接或损坏时向用户发出警报。他认为这可能促使公司更长时间保留数据。
“从谷歌服务器的角度来看，它知道设备是否离线，”杰克逊解释道，“如果最后一次事件是检测到防篡改且为运动触发事件，谷歌可能会以某种方式标记该视频，认为其对执法部门有价值而不予删除。”
杰克逊指出，服务条款中并无禁止谷歌激活此功能并延长视频保留时间的规定。他推测大多数用户可能并不了解这一潜在功能。
对未来调查的影响
“这是谷歌首次暗示其可能拥有从未公开披露的技术能力，”杰克逊表示，“或许是这次事件促使他们觉得，‘好吧，我们确实有这种能力，现在就用它来协助调查’。”
根据谷歌云存储保护备份恢复概述，“云存储提供多种选项，帮助您防止数据意外或恶意删除，并在灾难发生时恢复数据。这些选项对法律或监管合规以及保护对业务关键的数据都很有用。”
联邦调查局局长卡什·帕特尔（Kash Patel）告诉福克斯新闻，当局已执行合法搜查，并向私营企业寻求“加快调查结果”，随后进入其系统“挖掘人们通常认为已被删除且无人会关注的材料”。
在透明度报告中，谷歌Nest解释了公司如何响应法院命令或执法部门请求：
“当我们收到用户信息请求时，会仔细审查，仅在请求范围内并依据法律授权提供信息。隐私和安全对我们至关重要。在遵守请求前，我们确保其符合法律和Nest政策。适当情况下会通知用户收到法律要求，除非法律或法院命令禁止。如认为请求过度宽泛，我们会寻求缩小范围。”
杰克逊认为，从格思里的免费账户中恢复关键录像，可能会让谷歌面临未来执法部门大量调查请求的压力。
“不仅是消费者会对此类警报感到警觉，执法部门也会将此视为新的调查能力，可能纳入他们的视频资料收集流程，”杰克逊表示。
CBS新闻已就Nest摄像头录像事宜联系谷歌寻求置评。谷歌发言人此前曾向CBS新闻表示：“我们正在协助执法部门的调查”，并补充称“调查仍在进行中，目前无法分享更多细节”。
Cybersecurity experts explain how surveillance footage of Nancy Guthrie’s home was recovered
Updated on: February 11, 2026 / 6:05 PM EST / CBS News
Investigators with the FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department said they were able to recover footage from a Google Nest camera outside the Arizona home of Nancy Guthrie — the missing mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie — by extracting “residual data located in backend systems,” raising new questions about how it was possible to retain the video.
Retired special agent Jason Pack told CBS News that locating the missing footage of a masked individual outside Guthrie’s door was “like finding a needle in a haystack,” providing a breakthrough authorities needed more than a week after she was reported missing.
But many are questioning how footage was recovered from a doorbell camera that officials said was disconnected with no active subscription to store video. With a free Google Nest plan, the video should have been deleted within 3 to 6 hours — long after Guthrie was reported missing.
How doorbell cameras store data
Although Nest users with a free plan cannot access cannot access recordings past a certain time frame, cybersecurity experts say doorbell cameras, like Guthrie’s, have built-in backup mechanisms that enable them to store data across multiple layers, which makes short-term recovery possible.
“Internal storage uses a very lazy deletion mechanism, so the data wouldn’t be available to users who didn’t pay,” cybersecurity expert Alex Stamos explained to CBS News. “The video for non-subscribers would be marked for deletion, but depending on the exact implementation details, the actual files might not be deleted for days and the actual data wouldn’t be overwritten until the storage was needed.”
Patrick Jackson, a former NSA data researcher and the chief technology officer for privacy and security company Disconnect, added, “There’s kind of this old saying that data is never deleted, it’s just renamed. And I think this is a perfect, you know, showing of this where once this data’s uploaded, they may mark it for deletion, but it may never get deleted.”
Jackson said most doorbell cameras also have a tamper mode, a security feature that alerts a user when a device is being disconnected or damaged. He believes this may serve as a signal for companies to hold onto data for a longer period of time.
“From Google’s server perspective, it knows if that device goes offline,” Jackson said. “And so if the last event was tamper detected, and it’s a motion event, it could tag it in a way where Google may not delete that and may know that this could have some value to some law enforcement.”
Jackson said there’s nothing in the terms of service that would prevent Google from activating this feature and retaining video for a longer period of time. He suspects most users aren’t aware of this potential feature.
Implications for future investigations
“This is Google tipping their hand for potentially a capability that maybe they’ve never disclosed,” Jackson said. “And maybe this rose to the occasion where they felt, OK, you know, we do have this ability, we’re going to use it for this occasion.”
According to Google’s cloud storage protection backup recovery overview, “Cloud Storage offers a variety of options to help you protect your data from accidental or malicious deletion and recover your data in the event of a disaster. These options can be useful for legal or regulatory compliance, as well as for protecting data that is critical to your business.”
FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News that authorities executed lawful searches and turned to private sector companies to “expedite results and then go into their systems and actually excavate material that people would think would normally be deleted and no one would look for.”
In a transparency report, Nest explained how the company responds to court orders or requests from law enforcement.
“When we get a request for user information, we review it carefully and only provide information within the scope and authority of the request. Privacy and security are incredibly important to us. Before complying with a request, we make sure it follows the law and Nest’s policies. We notify users about legal demands when appropriate, unless prohibited by law or court order. And if we think a request is overly broad, we’ll seek to narrow it,” the company stated online.
Jackson said the recovery of critical footage from Guthrie’s free account could open Google up to a flood of future law enforcement inquiries.
“We’re not the only ones as consumers looking at this kind of alarm,” Jackson said. “Law enforcement folks are looking at this as like, oh, this could be a new capability that we could add to our pipeline for when we’re trying to source video footage.”
CBS News has reached out to Google for comment on the Nest footage. A Google spokesperson previously told CBS News, “We are assisting law enforcement with their investigation,” and adding that “this is an ongoing investigation, and we cannot share further details at this time.”