Delivery driver’s on camera salute goes viral
The short version: A viral doorbell-cam salute from Local 12 is heartwarming, but it also shows how normalized constant home surveillance has become in American life.
Our Take
Local 12's story about an Amazon driver's doorbell-cam salute is the kind of feel-good clip that makes the rounds every few months, and we get why people love it. Credit to the WKRC team for a nice piece of local reporting on a small moment of human decency.
But it's worth pausing on the bigger picture these viral doorbell videos quietly reinforce: the idea that it's normal, even charming, for every porch, driveway, and sidewalk to be recorded around the clock. Ring and Nest cameras feed into a culture where surveillance is framed as cute content instead of a privacy tradeoff — and that same mindset is what lets networked license plate readers like Flock spread through neighborhoods with little scrutiny. When we get comfortable with always-on cameras because of one good moment, we're less likely to ask hard questions about who else is watching, storing, and sharing that footage.
If you want to see how far that camera network has already crept into your own town, check our map, and if you'd rather push back than just scroll past it, our take-action page has concrete steps.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of LOCAL 12, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.