So here's some news on drone technology that might cause you to worry:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Targeted killings have made drones controversial, but a new class of tiny aircraft in the United States — cheap, able and ubiquitous — could engage in targeted snooping that existing laws are inadequate to address, witnesses and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said in a hearing on Wednesday.
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The drones, or unmanned aerial systems, have already helped the police find missing people and county planners measure the growth of a landfill. But they could also be used by drug dealers, pedophiles and nosy neighbors, the witnesses and a senator said.
Surveillance by government is limited by the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, and snooping by corporations and individuals is covered by privacy law and common law. But these were not written with drones in mind. The issue has taken on new urgency as the Federal Aviation Administration prepares to set forth rules for drones’ commercial use and as prices for the aircraft drop. Many states are considering legislation, but Congress is only beginning to consider the problem.
“There’s very little in American privacy law that would limit the use of drones for surveillance,” said one witness, Ryan Calo, an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Law. “Drones drive down the cost of surveillance considerably. We worry that the incidence of surveillance will go up.” - New York Times, 3/20/13
This has Senator Al Franken (D. MN) very concerned:
http://www.theverge.com/...
"We need to do more to prevent drones from being used in an invasive manner that violates Americans' privacy rights," said Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on privacy, later adding that he hoped his fellow lawmakers would "continue to work with me on appropriate legislation" to govern drone usage in the US. Already, several members of the House of Representatives have introduced bills targeted at imposing restrictions on drone usage. - The Verge, 3/20/13
Franken, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, expressed concerned about the size and pace of drone technology:
http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/...
To some degree senators at Wednesday’s hearing were still caught up in marveling at the gee-whiz, technological capabilities of UAVs.
“How small can these things get?” asked Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. A drone as small as a hummingbird is being developed, replied a witness at the hearing, Amie Stepanovich, director of the Domestic Surveillance Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). “The technology is increasing at an exponentially rapid rate.”
“Presumably at some point you could have one the size of a mosquito that has a battery that operates for weeks and you could have the mosquito following you around and not be aware of it,” said Franken. “God help us if an adolescent boy gets hold of one of these.” - NBC News, 3/20/13
Drones are already being used by police forces:
Benjamin Miller, a member of the sheriff's office of Mesa County, Colorado, population 175,000, testified in the hearing that his department has been using two consumer drones outfitted with cameras — the Draganflyer X36 and Falcon UAV — on various operations over the past four years. The agency has used drones for everything from pinpointing areas of a church that were still hot after a fire, to helping locate a missing elderly woman's body. Not surprisingly, Miller said he didn't think Congress should legislate heavily to regulate drone usage in the US. "I think the limitations we'd support are the ones we have currently identified through case law," Miller told the Senators. - The Verge, 3/20/13
Advocates of drone technology made their case before the committee:
Michael Toscano, the President and CEO of a drone lobbying group, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), echoed that sentiment and went further, pointing to a study his group recently released that found the unmanned systems industry could create over 70,000 jobs in three years and add $10 billion to the economy, with most of the new commercial drones (80 percent) being used for agricultural surveys. "There is a huge upside to this technology," Toscano said during the hearing, but he acknowledged there were concerns: "You cannot stop people from misusing any type of technology." - The Verge, 3/20/13
Critics of the use of drone technology by law enforcement also testified before the committee:
http://www.latimes.com/...
Amie Stepanovich, a surveillance expert at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a watchdog group, said police were more likely to use drones than manned aircraft because they are less expensive to buy and to operate. She urged the panel to require drone operators to file detailed public reports on drone use and to limit sharing of data collected by drones.
"The current state of the law is insufficient to address the drone surveillance," she said.
The Federal Aviation Administration began issuing drone licenses in 2007. Since then, it has authorized more than 1,400 unmanned aircraft for limited use by local police departments, universities and several federal agencies. The drones range from bird-sized devices to Predators that weigh 2 1/2 tons and have a 66-foot wingspan. - Los Angeles Time, 3/20/13
Stepanovich even referenced a pending court case regarding law enforcement's use of drones that could serve as the basis for drafting legislation that could set rules and limitations for the use of drone technology:
But Stepanovich said after the hearing that “we hope to see (legislative) action, if not in this term of Congress, then definitely prior to 2015 when the amount of drones in the U.S. is expected to increase pursuant to the FAA regulations.”
She also noted that a pending court challenge might affect the legal landscape for drone use.
The Customs and Border Protection agency, a part of the Department of Homeland Security, lends out its Predator drones to local law enforcement agencies to conduct operations unrelated to the border control mission. In North Dakota in 2011, a man was accused of stealing cattle. Police called in a Predator drone which flew over his property and helped police find and arrest him. He is now challenging the use of the drone in federal court as a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. The police in that case did not seek a warrant before using the drone, Stepanovich said. - NBC News, 3/20/13
Other Senators on the committee also echoed their concerns about the dangers drone technology have on our privacy:
http://rt.com/...
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), agreed with EPIC’s representative and said, “I’ve seen drones do all kinds of things, and I think those all kinds of things bring on great caution.”
“What altitude can they fly? What kind of facial recognition are they capable of at various activities? Can they take pictures of individuals through windows of their home?” Feinstein asked. “Drones are hard to spot for the untrained eye, so your ability to protect yourself is not great.” - RT, 3/20/13
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who chairs the committee, noted that Google agreed last week to pay $7 million to settle a lawsuit for violating people's privacy by collecting passwords, email and other data from unsuspecting computer users as part of its Street View mapping project.
"One company's push to gather data on Americans can lead to vast over-collection and potential privacy violations," Leahy said. "Before we allow widespread commercial use of drones in the domestic airspace, we need to carefully consider the impact on the privacy rights of Americans." - Los Angeles Times, 3/20/13
Drones could be outfitted to read license plates and recognize faces, said Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee. “Just because the government may comply with the Constitution does not mean they should be able to constantly surveil, like Big Brother,” he said.
He warned that criminals could use drones because they were so inexpensive and capable, and that news reporters could use them in an intrusive way. - New York Times, 3/20/13
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he had “very deep concerns about the government collecting information on the citizenry, and with the ease and availability of drones, I think there is real concern that the day-to-day conduct of American citizens going about their business might be monitored, catalogued, and recorded the federal government.” - NBC News, 3/20/13
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minnesota) concluded the hearing by admitting, while yes, drones could become one of the biggest technological advances America has ever encountered, the potential blowback could be catastrophic. The negative aspect, he said, would mean, “No privacy whatsoever” for each and every American. - RT, 3/20/13
Congressmen Joe L. Barton (R. TX-6) & Ed Markey (D. MA-5) have introduced legislation that would limit data-gathering by drones. Their bill would require licensed drone pilots to say publicly what their drones were doing and how the information would be used, among other protections. Michael Friel, a spokesman for the Customs and Border Protection agency, is currently drafting a "privacy impact assessment" that will define procedures for collecting and handling information gathered by the agency's Predator drones, as well as its manned aircraft, helicopters and fixed surveillance towers. Friel said that the rules will be available on the agency's website in the next few months.
If you want to get more information about the bill, feel free to contact Barton and Markey's offices for more information:
Barton: 202-225-2002
Markey: 202-225-2836
And please urge Senator Franken and his colleagues to take action on drafting legislation to protect our privacy and civil liberties from drone technology:
Franken: 202-224-5641
Leahy: 202-224-4242
Feinstein: 202-224-3841
Grassley: 202-224-3744
Cruz: 202-224-5922