Image: Google, Electronic Frontier Foundation
An Indian casino and the U.S. State Department appear on a new list of drone license applicants uncovered through a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration.
Organizations must currently apply for an FAA license to fly robotic drones over the U.S. homeland. The nonprofit digital rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been using lawsuits to get the FAA to release information about drone license applicants, so that Americans can begin thinking about privacy issues and considering legal privacy protections.
"The vehicles are getting smaller and more nimble, meaning they could soon maneuver into all sorts of spaces we normally consider private," said Rebecca Jeschke, digital rights analyst at EFF. "And with the advances in cheap, sensitive and small video cameras — not to mention the availability of cheap storage — video that's collected could be around a long time."
The EFF counts 81 public entities that have applied for authorization to fly a drone prior to October 2012. Such entities include different branches of the U.S. military that have tested battlefield drones over the homeland — sometimes by practicing their tracking techniques on cars driving on U.S. highways.
But the list also includes local civilian entities such as state agencies, colleges and police departments. New drone license applicants on the list include: Canyon County Sheriff’s Office (Idaho); Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office (Northwest Oregon); Grand Forks Sheriff’s Department (North Dakota); King County Sheriff’s Office (covering Seattle).
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Several Ohio entities on the updated list include the Medina County Sheriff’s Office, Lorain County Community College and Sinclair Community College. The Ohio Department of Transportation also applied for a drone license — perhaps to study how drones could help monitor highway traffic conditions and inspect bridges for maintenance.
Perhaps the most unusual drone license applicant on the updated list is the Barona Band of Mission Indians Risk Management Office located near San Diego.
The U.S. State Department and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) stand out as the newest drone license applicants on the federal level.
Much remains unknown about what drone license applicants want to do with their authorization to fly drones over the U.S. homeland. The FAA primarily looks at safety requirements rather than possible privacy issues related to the drones — but that could change with the Drone Aircraft Privacy and Transparency Act, introduced by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. last year.
The FAA has only released about half of the information requested by the EFF under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in October 2012. The EFF hopes that the FAA can eventually begin making such records public and available in a timely manner so that Americans can better track the electronic eyes watching them from the skies above.
A second lawsuit by EFF aims to find out how U.S. Customs and Border Protection uses Predator drones to patrol the borders or as loans to other law enforcement agencies.
"We've only received a small fraction of the records responsive to both lawsuits so far," said Jennifer Lynch, a staff attorney at EFF. "Hopefully, the FAA will find a way to release this information to the public on a regular basis on its own without EFF having to file more lawsuits."
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11 Comments
Add CommentI have a feeling that the flying of drones all over the US will not end well.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree that it will be divisive and cause quite a bit of dialogue. However, if it boiled down to a privacy issue, why is the ability to download or otherwise manipulate up to the minute satellite imagery with resolutions as high as one meter not also a privacy issue?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'd be curious to hear peoples thoughts.....
There is a distinction between a satellite's remote vertical view of my roof and a micro-helicopter hovering at my window, providing horizontal video and audio of events inside my home... A formal search warrant is normally required to obtain that level of access within my home. However, no warrant is required for someone to follow me around, taking pictures of my activities in public areas.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHello Big Bro...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisShades of George Orwelle. Taken individually the prevailance of video cameras everywhere, law enforcement having hot lines to turn in your neighbors kids for under age drinking, drones spying on us from overhead ,cameras at intersections able to get you a ticket,and other privacy encroachment issues don't seem too dangerous but we have become so used to it that we no longer object too much.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is a very dangerous thing as our expectation of privacy and personal rights just keeps getting lower
and lower until soon we will give them up for the "public good". Then we may wish we had our guns which we will have given up long before.
Drones can be a useful tool for things like inspection of bridges and guarding the border. Chasing down criminals is also a good thing. I think it comes down to intent (what is it's intended use) and abuse (using the technology for things other than the intended use). The temptation to abuse the use of the drones is what the privacy issues are about.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor myself, the drones would find spying on me a very boring thing to do since I don't do anything illegal or immoral. That does not mean that I would be happy about one hovering outside my window during a romantic interlude with my wife. My problem is that mankind has always had serious problems resisting the temptation to spy on each other.
And if the criminals can get their hands on the technology, games over... imagine how easy it would be to case a place to see if anyone is home before breaking in. Or having one alert you to police coming near to the scene of the crime? Next would be automatic home defenses for shooting down drones as part of some companies home security package.
The issue seems a bit silly. We already fly surveillance aircraft in the US all the time. As far as I'm aware aircraft under a certain size don't need FAA approval or have a special status; think model aircraft. Radio controlled micro-aircraft are already flown every single weekend by amateurs. So, as far as having a micro helicopter peeping into your window, that's already possible and would require a warrant. A police officer could do it as well. This seems like a gross pandering to the paranoid to sell copy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI really dont see the cause for alarm that a drone could do the same thing someone with a helicopter could do, ie follow a car, take aerial imagery. Or do what radio controlled airplane hobbyists have been doing for years... fly in near ground surface airspace. Its not like you cant buy an I-phone controlled video surveillance mini helicopter in any mall right now for $30 (just saw a Groupon for one). Sorry guys, but nobody cares to see you in your jammies watching TV, unless you're a criminal casing the place... but then you would just buy a cheap mini helicopter as mentioned above.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would like to see more publicly available "street view" type imagery shot from drones.
One of the differences is that if YOU are flying a helicopter YOU can get out of the way of OTHER helicopters or small planes. A drone can not.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDrones also crash ... a lot. I'm sure you won't mind one coming through the roof of your house and setting it on fire.
Why are we doing this to ourselves?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe already have cameras watching us at almost every intersection. Cameras watching us in almost every place we go to buy things. There are GPS locating devices built into our cars, our car tires, our mobile phones and handheld devices, our driver's licenses and credit cards, and even our medicine bottles and food containers are not exempt.
There are surveillance devices built into our cable boxes, video games, TV's, computers, and now even in the new digital water meters in our homes. Now Drones? What's next?
Shame on the George W.Bush administration for creating the Patriot Act, and subsequently kicking open the door to a future police state here in America.
When this type of thing happened in Nazi Germany, it was really bad for the people.
So bad that we had to go to war to put a stop to it. Many lives were sacrificed, and a lot of damage was done. Now we are allowing this to happen here, on our own soil?
We have to ask ourselves this question. Why are we spending so many of our prescious tax dollars to track and surveil our own people? We are turning this country into a voyeuristic police state with all of the latest technologies.
Privacy and freedom are what made America the best place in the world to live well and raise your family. How long before privacy and freedom are things of the past?
More importantly, how do we explain to our kids that we allowed these things to happen on our watch? We already have to explain the polluting of our water, food, and air supplies. Now this? Remember when "the talk" was just about the bird's and bee's?
We need to get our heads screwed on straight and start turning this country around, or we will have to face being forever remembered as the generation that screwed it up for everyone. We also need to elect people who will make good decisions for our people, and terminate the politicians in our nations government who only push their privately funded agendas on the American public. We cannot afford to keep making bad decisions and then act like we are still going to be all right. These things matter.
We need heroes in our government, not voyeurs and sellouts. Love your countryman and love your country.