WE HAVEN'T THOUGHT ABOUT THAT

Good question for anyone with a snake flag on the truck. If a government agent walked up your driveway every day snapping a photo every few seconds, would you call that freedom? Now give the agent an Amazon vest. Feel better?

WE HAVEN’T THOUGHT ABOUT THAT is what an Amazon executive told Bloomberg when asked whether homeowners could opt out of its delivery drivers’ new camera glasses. It is also, so far, the answer from most of the people who print “Don’t Tread on Me” on things.

A viral post about this is going around, and parts of it are inflated. It invents a 3,000-photos-per-shift rate, multiplies it into millions, and ties it all to data centers. None of that is on the record. The real story doesn’t need the help.

What Amazon’s glasses actually do

In a Sept. 30 Bloomberg Opinion column, Dave Lee reported the glasses could take “several thousand captures in a single driver’s typical shift,” per The Verge. Amazon executive Viraj Chatterjee called “every few seconds” a good guess. Asked if customers could opt out, he said: “We haven’t thought about that.”

You can’t opt out, see the images, or ask Amazon to delete them, The Next Web reported. Amazon won’t say how long it keeps them. A spokesperson confirmed police can get them with a warrant.

Amazon’s side, to be fair. The glasses take stills on the walk from the van to the door, not video all day. Wearing them is voluntary for drivers, and there is a hardware privacy switch. Amazon says it blurs faces and plates before any human sees an image and keeps no unblurred originals, it told The XR Beat. The pilot has covered more than 275,000 deliveries. The goal is 5,000 drivers by the end of 2026 and, per Amazon’s own announcement, more than 20,000 devices by the end of 2027.

Where do the pictures go? Into Wellspring, Amazon’s AI map of the physical world. Amazon says it has already logged 202 million parking locations and 2.8 million building entrances. Your front door is a data point. You were never asked.

An Amazon Prime delivery van on Camp Street in New Orleans, 2020. Amazon wants more than 20,000 pairs of camera glasses on drivers like this by the end of 2027. Credit: Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Dallas grades your house from the brush truck

Dallas didn’t need Amazon. The city pays City Detect, an Alabama vendor, about $852,000 a year for 100 AI cameras on 50 bulk and brush trucks, per city documents and the Dallas Morning News. Since April they have flagged more than 21,000 properties and given each a “blight score” from 1 to 4, NBC 5 Investigates found through open records.

A human reviews every flag before anything happens, and most flags lead to a courtesy notice, not a fine. As of mid-September the city had sent about 3,700 notices and issued 57 citations, the Texas Dispatch reported. The city’s one measurable goal going in: 5,200 courtesy notices a year. That’s a quota with a camera on it.

One homeowner got a 2 for chimney discoloration and called it “a money grab.” Another, on Social Security in the historic Bottom neighborhood, called it “a violation of privacy.” NBC 5’s map shows many detections in Southern Dallas. NBC 5 also found a plate the AI failed to blur; staff had to black it out by hand. Coverage from KERA followed.

Dallas City Hall. The council approved the City Detect camera contract unanimously in December 2025; a committee briefing on the program is set for Oct. 19. Credit: Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress, public domain.

Council member Chad West tried to cut the money: “My primary concern is that this could end up being inadvertently a tax on the poor,” he told NBC 5. He was alone. He withdrew it for a committee briefing now set for Monday, Oct. 19.

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The red costume: Don’t Tread on Me, unless it’s Amazon

The Libertarian Party platform is clear: “We are committed to ending government’s practice of spying on everyone. We support the rights recognized by the Fourth Amendment to be secure in our persons, homes, property, and communications.” It even says that protection should cover “records held by third parties.” A photo archive of your house, held by Amazon and available to police with a warrant, is exactly that.

The 2024 GOP platform promises Americans can “transact free from Government Surveillance and Control.” That’s in the crypto section. Bitcoin gets a privacy pledge. Your porch doesn’t.

Some on the right did show up. The libertarian Institute for Justice warned “blight is often used by cities around the country as a pretext” for taking property, attorney Daniel Woislaw told NBC 5. Sen. Josh Hawley is investigating Flock license-plate cameras. That’s the standard. We could not find a Libertarian Party, Cato or Republican Party statement on Amazon’s glasses. And Amazon’s founder didn’t get a cold shoulder from MAGA: the company gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, AP reported.

So here’s the test. If the IRS put cameras on mail trucks to score your yard, there would be a rally by Friday. Put the same camera on an Amazon driver or a city brush truck, and the snake goes back in the basket.

The Gadsden flag, the original Don’t Tread on Me. A coiled warning to whoever comes onto your property uninvited. Credit: Christopher Gadsden design, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The blue costume: privacy speeches, surveillance budgets

Democrats aren’t off the hook. Sen. Ed Markey spent years on Ring and called its Flock deal part of an “Orwellian surveillance state,” his office said after Amazon dropped it in February. Good. But when Democrats held the House in 2022, a bipartisan national privacy bill cleared committee 53 to 2, and Speaker Pelosi stalled it over California’s own law. No federal privacy law since. That’s why Amazon can say “we haven’t thought about that” and break no rule.

And Dallas is a blue city. Its nonpartisan council approved the cameras unanimously in December 2025. Its mayor, Eric Johnson, switched to the GOP in 2023. Nobody owns this one alone. The party of “equity” signed off on a camera that, by its own council member’s warning, could fall hardest on the poorest zip codes.

Both costumes

Red says government is the threat, then shrugs when a corporation or a city does the watching. Blue says Big Tech is the threat, then never passes the law and lets local governments buy the cameras. Neither wants the boring standard.

The rule to laminate: if a camera can’t legally sit on your lawn, it shouldn’t walk up your driveway on someone’s face. Tell people it’s there. Let them opt out. Delete it on a schedule. Make police get a warrant before Amazon or the city collects it, not after.

A WashU law professor calls it flooding the zone until resistance feels futile. Want to know who funds the people who could stop it? Start with the Follow the Money state map.

Receipts

• The Verge, Sept. 30, 2026. Bloomberg Opinion (Dave Lee): “several thousand captures”; Chatterjee “We haven’t thought about that”; warrant; blurring; 275,000 deliveries; 20,000 by 2027.
• The Next Web. No opt-out, view or delete; retention undisclosed; voluntary for drivers; privacy mode; 5,000 drivers by end of 2026.
• The XR Beat. Amazon: no unblurred originals stored; no third parties; hardware privacy switch.
• Amazon: DSP program investment. Wellspring 202 million parking locations, 2.8 million entrances; more than 20,000 glasses by end of 2027.
• NBC 5 DFW, Sept. 1, 2026. 21,000+ properties, blight score 1 to 4, courtesy notices, 5,200 goal, Institute for Justice quote.
• NBC 5 DFW, Sept. 2, 2026. Chad West, “tax on the poor.”
• NBC 5 DFW, Sept. 23, 2026. Unblurred plate redacted by hand.
• Dallas Morning News, Dec. 10, 2025. Unanimous council vote; 100 cameras; brush trucks.
• City of Dallas council briefing. $852,000 a year; human in the loop.
• The Texas Dispatch. 50 trucks; about 3,700 notices; 57 citations; Oct. 19 briefing.
• KERA, Sept. 18, 2026.
• Libertarian Party platform, 1.3 Privacy. 2024 Republican platform.
• Roll Call: Hawley Flock hearing. NBC News: Ring drops Flock. Markey statement.
• AP: Amazon, Meta $1 million to inauguration. IAPP: Pelosi and the privacy bill. AP: Dallas mayor switches parties. WashU: Neil Richards.

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Originally published on Substack.