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The Best Science Writing Online 2012
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
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Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series on security and privacy during the age of drone warfare. Part one is available here.
Technology, as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in a 2001 Supreme Court opinion, has the power "to shrink the realm of guaranteed privacy." Few other technologies have as much power to do this as drones. Because they can perch hundreds or thousands of meters in the air, drones literally add a new dimension to the ability to eavesdrop. They can see into backyards and into windows that look out onto enclosed spaces not visible from the street. They can monitor wi-fi signals or masquerade as mobile phone base stations, intercepting phone calls before passing them along. Using a network of drones, it would be possible to follow the movements of every vehicle in a city—a capability that would be invaluable to a police department tracking the getaway car in a bank robbery but invasive if used to track a patient driving to a clinic to get treatment for a confidential medical condition.
The growth in nonmilitary use of drones is too recent to have generated a significant body of legal precedents specifically addressing their implications with respect to privacy. But closely related legal cases and evolving legal and societal standards regarding privacy make it clear that the issue will be complex. For example, in 1986 the United States Supreme Court ruled that law enforcement's use of a private plane to view otherwise hidden marijuana plants growing in a California backyard did not constitute a violation of the Fourth Amendment right of freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. The reason? The police observations were made from "public navigable airspace." This might be interpreted to suggest that the owners of drones operated in public airspace will enjoy broad latitude to use them for surveillance in the U.S.
However, drone-based surveillance that is sustained, extensive or systematic enough will at some point almost certainly run afoul of privacy rights, although determining when that point is reached will not be easy. Privacy rights are a complex and evolving patchwork. In the U.S., for example, the right to privacy is found not only through a combination of constitutional amendments, but also in additional protections in some state constitutions and laws. In Europe Article Eight of the European Convention on Human Rights provides an explicit right to "respect for private and family life." An additional challenge to predicting the impact of drones on privacy is that the regulations that govern where, by whom, under what circumstances, and what altitudes drones may be used are in flux. In the U.S., for example, the Federal Aviation Administration has been working to develop new policies governing the use of small UAVs, and is aiming to publish proposed rules in the near future.
Regardless of the details of the eventual regulations adopted by the FAA and by analogous agencies in other countries, drones are certain to have a profound impact on privacy for the simple reason that they make it easy and inexpensive to gather massive amounts of information from above. Ryan Calo of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School has suggested that the widespread use of drones may in fact benefit privacy law by generating a backlash that will result in increased privacy protections. Even if this occurs, however, it is unclear what forms these new privacy protections might take, and how they would be balanced against the many beneficial uses of information that drones can acquire.
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9 Comments
Add CommentHeads up people! It is a matter of fact that we have no expectation of privacy when in public places. It is a matter of Supreme court finding that any transmissions using public airwaves are not private and can be intercepted without a warrant. For those worried about being spied upon through the window; I recommend that you close the curtains.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs a drone hovering over your backyard in the local equivalent of the High Seas or is it hanging over your fence like a neighbor's fruit tree? If the latter, it runs the risk of becoming a clay pigeon.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYour Government says "If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Government already can monitor your Internet and Cell Phone and maybe Landline Phone.
A lot of public places in places such as London have thousands of monitors viewing the streets, so we are already subject to much invasion of privacy.But "it is for our protection".
I fear that the "1984" situation is already here.
"We want you to keep your eye on Bob Arktor..."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen you have a secret to hide, go to the cellar!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOur world has now become the very prophecy of George Orwell. The all seeing and all knowing Big Brother government now listens to all our phone calls and monitors all our internet surfing and watches us have sex. Unfortunate peasants who run afoul of Big Brother will have their doors kicked in by jack-booted government agents and the peasants are dragged off to some water-boarding dungeon and are never heard from again. Big Brother's next project is the installation of RFID chips into the brains of all peasants to monitor all thoughts. Any peasants producing any anti-Big Brother thoughts will be dragged away for some intense water-boarding.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMore important than ever to insist we keep the government small - and we behave in ways consistent with our values so if what we do is public it will not matter. Remember what Mom said "always wear clean cloths - you never know if you will be in an accident."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat is frightening is the idea that the "good" uses of privacy-invading drones should be "balanced" against privacy issues. The issue becomes not whether someone can steal your information and invade your privacy and but how much and why?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOn the other hand small pilotless drones have been a part of model airplaning for 50 years or more. Small, gas-driven models with radio controlled or timed cameras have been available since the 1950s. Estes makes a small rocket that goes a couple of hundred feet into the air and takes photos. These are basically toys, but many technological breakthroughs began as toys.
Nevertheless, the fact that its easy, cheap or has been going on for a long time doesn't justify invasions of personal space. Photographing a nude sunbather inside a high fence on their own property might be impossible to prevent, but when those photos start showing up it becomes an offense, and that's when you need a lawyer.
But when the government, police department or sheriff's department does it, it's regarded differently but absent a warrant or authorization of some kind perhaps it shouldn't be. Is it OK to peep if you work for the state? I would say no.
I guess the next step is anti drone,,,drones,,,.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf your drone is anywhere near my back yard airspace, I'd say it would make for perfect target practice. Now, I just need an anti-drone particle beam weapon(bullets are so passe) or maybe a laser???
,,,and the privacy race goes on,,,