OFF THE WIRE
In Afghanistan, the American military uses Raven drones for reconnaissance. Civilians in the U.S. are now allowed to use similar unmanned aircraft for commercial purposes.
Now that American civilians have wide latitude to use drone aircraft, the potential is dizzying: shooting Hollywood films, crop dusting, monitoring weather, spying on neighbors, photographing celebrities.
Should the government restrict where drones can fly and film, to protect people’s privacy? Or should we all assume that if we are outdoors or near a window, we have no privacy?
Robots differ from tanks, artillery and other military equipment making its way back from the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Robots are as useful on the home front as in the theater of war, for instance in response to many recent disasters. Robotic submarines helped assess and contain the BP oil spill and search for missing passengers after the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship. Authorities used a robot to reach the survivors of a collapsed mine in New Zealand and to
The trick for drone advocates will be to harness the potential of drones without frightening or offending American civilians.
Some uses of robots are, of course, more controversial. Privacy is a concern. Held in check today by Federal Aviation Administration restrictions, tomorrow may bring widespread use of surveillance drones by police departments and journalists all over the country. One estimate attributed to the F.A.A. by The Washington Times puts the number of drones in domestic operation by 2020 at 30,000. In December, The Los Angeles Times reported that a military-grade Predator B drone had assisted in the arrest of local cattle rustlers in North Dakota. Meanwhile, as I wrote in a recent online essay in the Stanford Law Review, contemporary privacy law is not likely to pose much of a hurdle to the domestic use of drones for surveillance.
The trick, then, will be to harness the potential of drones without frightening or offending American civilians. This is a significant hurdle. Robots make many uncomfortable. We tend to associate drones in particular with armed conflict, even assassination. And drone surveillance will feel different than even the most extensive electronic surveillance.
I hear that the drone industry has recently begun to hire P.R. firms. Best of luck.