Aircraft Can Photograph People, License Plates Of Cars, Gather Other Information

The director of the FAA's Office of Unmanned Aircraft systems says that the agency has not set forth any rules for companies that collect data, either purposely or incidentally, using drones.

Testifying at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, director Earl Lawrence said that there have been no rules established regarding what types of data can be collected by commercial drones, whether such data can be sold to third parties, and how long it can be retained.

The blog MeriTalk reports that Lawrence said that the FAA is working with the Drone Advisory Committee to craft rules to address privacy concerns.

During the hearing, Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) called drone technology "Dickensian" in that it "is  simultaneously the best of technologies that can enable and ennoble, but it can also degrade and debase human beings as well. A lot of the bad stuff deals with privacy. Right now, there are no safeguards in place against the collection and sale of personal information.”

But John Villasenor, professor of Engineering and Public Policy at UCLA and Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution who teaches a course at UCLA’s law school called “Digital Technologies and the Constitution,” said sweeping federal regulations are unnecessary because drones do not represent a privacy risk in ways that are not already covered by existing constitutional, statutory, and common law privacy protections.

“Congress has a vital role in addressing the privacy challenges raised by emerging technologies," Villasenor said. "Part of that role involves knowing when not to legislate.”

(Image from file)

FMI: Full Article, www.commerce.senate.gov