[drone-list] NYT: How much UAV surveillance are you comfortable with?

Sat Feb 18 15:45:13 PST 2012

The New York Times

February 17, 2012
Drones Set Sights on U.S. Skies By NICK
WINGFIELD<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/nick_wingfield/index.html?inline=nyt-per>and
SOMINI
SENGUPTA<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/somini_sengupta/index.html?inline=nyt-per>

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. b Daniel GC!ratebs career came crashing to earth a
few weeks ago. Thatbs when the Los Angeles Police Department warned local
real estate agents not to hire photographers like Mr. GC!rate, who was
helping sell luxury property by using a
drone<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/u/unmanned_aerial_vehicles/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>to
shoot sumptuous aerial movies. Flying drones for commercial purposes,
the police said, violated federal aviation rules.

bI was paying the bills with this,b said Mr. GC!rate, who recently gave an
unpaid demonstration of his drone in this Southern California suburb.

His career will soon get back on track. A new federal law, signed by the
president on Tuesday, compels the Federal Aviation
Administration<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal_aviation_administration/index.html?inline=nyt-org>to
allow drones to be used for all sorts of commercial endeavors b from
selling real estate and dusting crops, to monitoring oil
spills<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/o/oil_spills/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>and
wildlife, even shooting Hollywood films. Local police and emergency
services will also be freer to send up their own drones.

But while businesses, and drone manufacturers especially, are celebrating
the opening of the skies to these unmanned aerial vehicles, the law raises
new worries about how much detail the drones will capture about lives down
below b and what will be done with that information. Safety concerns like
midair collisions and property damage on the ground are also an issue.

American courts have generally permitted surveillance of private property
from public airspace. But scholars of privacy law expect that the likely
proliferation of drones will force Americans to re-examine how much
surveillance they are comfortable with.

bAs privacy law stands today, you donbt have a reasonable expectation of
privacy while out in public, nor almost anywhere visible from a public
vantage,b said Ryan Calo, director of privacy and robotics at the Center
for Internet and Society at Stanford University. bI donbt think this
doctrine makes sense, and I think the widespread availability of drones
will drive home why to lawmakers, courts and the public.b

Some questions likely to come up: Can a drone flying over a house pick up
heat from a lamp used to grow
marijuana<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/m/marijuana/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>inside,
or take pictures from outside someonebs third-floor fire escape?
Can images taken from a drone be sold to a third party, and how long can
they be kept?

Drone proponents say the privacy concerns are overblown. Randy McDaniel,
chief deputy of the Montgomery County Sheriffbs Department in Conroe, Tex.,
near Houston, whose agency bought a drone to use for various law
enforcement operations, dismissed worries about surveillance, saying
everyone everywhere can be photographed with cellphone cameras anyway. bWe
donbt spy on people,b he said. bWe worry about criminal elements.b

Still, the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups are
calling for new protections against what the A.C.L.U. has said could be
broutine aerial surveillance of American life.b

Under the new law, within 90 days, the F.A.A. must allow police and first
responders to fly drones under 4.4 pounds, as long as they keep them under
an altitude of 400 feet and meet other requirements. The agency must also
allow for bthe safe integrationb of all kinds of drones into American
airspace, including those for commercial uses, by Sept. 30, 2015. And it
must come up with a plan for certifying operators and handling airspace
safety issues, among other rules.

The new law, part of a broader financing bill for the F.A.A., came after
intense lobbying by drone makers and potential customers.

The agency probably will not be making privacy rules for drones. Although
federal law until now had prohibited drones except for recreational use or
for some waiver-specific law enforcement purposes, the agency has issued
only warnings, never penalties, for unauthorized uses, a spokeswoman said.
The agency was reviewing the lawbs language, the spokeswoman said.

For drone makers, the change in the law comes at a particularly good time.
With the winding-down of the war in Afghanistan, where drones have been
used to gather intelligence and fire missiles, these manufacturers have
been awaiting lucrative new opportunities at home. The market for drones is
valued at $5.9 billion and is expected to double in the next decade,
according to industry figures. Drones can cost millions of dollars for the
most sophisticated varieties to as little as $300 for one that can be
piloted from an
iPhone<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/iphone/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>.

bWe see a huge potential market,b said Ben Gielow of the Association for
Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, a drone maker trade group.

For Patrick Egan, who represents small businesses and others in his work
for the Remote Control Aerial Photography Association in Sacramento, the
new law also canbt come fast enough. Until 2007, when the federal agency
began warning<http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/uas/reg/media/frnotice_uas.pdf>against
nonrecreational use of drones, he made up to $2,000 an hour using a
drone to photograph crops for farmers, helping them spot irrigation leaks.
bIbve got organic farmers screaming for me to come out,b he said.

The Montgomery County Sheriffbs Department in Texas bought its 50-pound
drone in October from Vanguard Defense Industries, a company founded by
Michael Buscher, who built drones for the army, and then sold them to an
oil company whose ships were threatened by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The
company custom-built the drone, which takes pictures by day and senses heat
sources at night. It cost $300,000, a fraction of the cost of a helicopter.

Mr. McDaniel said his SWAT team could use it for reconnaissance, or to
manage road traffic after a big accident. He said he regretted that he
didnbt have it a few months ago, to search for a missing person in a
densely wooded area.

Mr. Buscher, meanwhile, said he was negotiating with several police
agencies. bThere is tremendous potential,b he said. bWe see agencies
dipping their toes.b

The possibilities for drones appear limitless. Last year, Cy Brown of
Bunkie, La., began hunting feral pigs at night by outfitting a model
airplane with a heat-sensing camera that soared around his brotherbs rice
farm, feeding live aerial images of the pigs to Mr. Brown on the ground.
Mr. Brown relayed the pigsb locations by radio to a friend with a shotgun.

He calls his plane the Dehogaflier<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peVeKto-00E>,
and says it saves him time wandering in the muck looking for skittish pigs.
bNow you can know in 15 minutes if itbs worth going out,b said Mr. Brown,
an electrical engineer.

Earlier this month, in Woodland Hills, Mr. GC!rate, the photographer,
demonstrated his drone by flicking a hand-held joystick and sending the
$5,000 machine hovering high above a tennis court. A camera beneath the
drone recorded lush, high-definition video of the surrounding property.

Bill Kerbox, a real estate agent in Malibu who hired Mr. GC!rate for several
shoots before the L.A.P.D. crackdown, said that aerial video had helped him
stand out from his competitors, and that the loss of it had been painful.
Mr. GC!rate, for now, plans to work mainly in his native Peru, where he has
used his drone to shoot commercials for banks. He said he was approached by
paparazzi last year about filming the reality television star Kim
Kardashianbs wedding using a drone, but turned down the offer. bMaybe the
F.A.A. should give a driverbs license for this, with a flight test,b he
said. bDo a background check to make sure Ibm not a terrorist.b

-- 
Jonathan Hutson
Director of Communications
Enough Project
1333 H St., 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
www.enoughproject.org

Mobile: +1-202-386-1618
Skype: jjhutson
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