by Mike Gray
The military has been effectively using surveillance drones for years—but what happens when police forces and private citizens start using them? In the UK, the subject has already come up:
Spy drones are considered the future of policing, although critics have voiced concerns that they could be a worrying extension of Big Brother Britain.
Last month arms manufacturer BAE Systems said it was adapting military-style UAVs for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police. Documents showed the force hoped to begin using the drones in time for the 2012 Olympics.
But they also indicated that the drones could eventually be used to spy on the civilian population, by rooting out motorists suspected of antisocial driving, for covert urban surveillance and to monitor ‘waste management’ for local councils.
But what about First Amendment America?
Similar concepts are already being developed in the U.S.
‘If the Israelis can use them to find terrorists, certainly a husband is going to be able to track a wife who goes out at 11 o’clock at night and follow her,’ New York divorce lawyer Raoul Felder told the Journal.
The technology is swiftly moving beyond military and even police circles—already unmanned aircraft that can fly predetermined routes cost just a few hundred dollars and can be operated by an iPhone.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and former Navy fighter pilot Missy Cummings is working to develop a ‘Personal Sentry’ drone about the size of a pizza box that warns soldiers if danger is approaching from behind.
But, she said, ‘that military stuff is kind of passe’.
‘It doesn’t take a rocket scientist from MIT to tell you if we can do it for a soldier in the field, we can do it for anybody.’
She told the Wall Street Journal that she could use such technology to follow her young child on the way to school by planting an electronic bug in her lunch box or backpack.
‘It would bring a whole new meaning to the term hover parent,’ she said.
The FAA has not approved the use of personal drones just yet. But a spokesman said the agency is working with private industry on standards that could allow the broader use of drones.
And then there are “recreational drones,” flying cameras capable of taking pictures of folks sunbathing in their fenced-in back yards:
Grey areas already exist, however—particularly with the recreational use of drones.
There are no regulations governing recreational drone use. Instead the FAA recommends—emphasis on ‘recommends’—such drones be flown away from populated areas, from aeroplanes, below a certain altitude and so on.
And if people claim their drones are for personal use, that could theoretically get around many FAA regulations.
So while the military has to follow rules of engagement regarding drone use, there is—as yet—no similar set of rules regarding privacy for domestic use of drones.
From the London Daily Mail Online article (“Celebs beware! New Pandora’s box of ‘personal’ drones that could stalk anyone from Brangelina to your own child”).
