Civil Liberties Group Calls For Limits On UAV Use By Government, Law Enforcement

A civil liberties group in Washington, D.C., wants very strict regulations on the use of UAVs in U.S. airspace. They're not concerned so much about the safety of pilots who are flying in the same areas as unpiloted drones, but rather about having their picture taken.

Quad Copter File Photo

The Center for Democracy and Technology says the FAA should require companies and government agencies at any level which use a UAV to provide a "data collection statement" prior to their deployment. The New York Times reports that, in a blog entry posted on the group's website in December, the group argues that police agencies should only be allowed to use the aircraft to gather information in specific cases, not as general surveillance tools. They also say that any data collected should be kept for as short a time as possible. The group says "Drone surveillance, whether it is carried out by law enforcement or not, raises significant legal and constitutional issues that deserve serious discussion."

Their contention may be borne out by a recent case that came before the U.S. Supreme Court in which the court ruled that a suspects' constitutional right to privacy was violated when police attached a GPS tracking device to his private vehicle. The court said that the tracker constituted an illegal search without a warrant.

But an argument can be made that a camera on a UAV is not very different from cameras at such places as toll booths that record the license plate of every car that passes through, or security cameras that are becoming more and more prevalent. Some transportation companies use smart cards that can track when the cardholder rides public transportation. All of that data is collected and stored.

For its part, the FAA is primarily a safety agency. They are not expected to delve in to the realm of attempting to regulate what data can be collected and how it can be used.

FMI: www.cdt.org, www.faa.gov