Drones spying nudists?

[Agde]

What will surveillance drones in US skies mean for naturists?

An article in the International Herald Tribune today says that a law signed by President Barack Obama on Tuesday will compel the FAA "to allow drones to be used for all sorts of commercial endeavors — from selling real estate and dusting crops, to monitoring oil spills and wildlife, to surveying damage from hurricanes, even to shooting Hollywood films. The police and emergency services will be freer to send up their own drones." IHT quotes Ryan Calo, director of privacy and robotics at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University, worrying that ‘‘as privacy law stands today, you don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy while out in public, nor almost anywhere visible from a public vantage. I don’t think this doctrine makes sense...’’ The article asks: " Can a drone flying over a house pick up heat from a lamp used to grow marijuana inside, for instance, or take pictures from outside someone’s third floor fire escape? Can images taken from a drone be sold to a third party, and how long can they be kept?" The specific rules evidently haven't been figured out yet. Randy Mcdaniel, chief of the sheriff’s department in Conroe, Texas, near Houston, whose agency purchased a drone to use for law-enforcement operations, is quoted as saying that concerns about privacy are overblown, "everyone, everywhere can be photographed with cellphone cameras anyway." Yes, but there are sometimes fences or other stuff in the way for us non-drone cellphone photographers...

Personally, I don't mind being photographed nude in my backyard by a drone. Well, as long as it's not used to enforce some "public" indecency law. Maybe AANR/TNS/NAC should make a few phone calls to make sure that friendly naturists are protected. More optimistically, maybe the advent of domestic drones will make being photographed nude so common that sheriffs won't bother following up and legislators consequently will have to decide more clearly what "public" actually means and what, photographed or otherwise, specifically constitutes doing something "indecent."

At least, thanks to the real estate drones, new neighbours will know in advance that there are naturists living next door. On the other hand, why am I more comfortable with the thought of overhead Obama Drones than overhead Santorum Drones?

[Baron Lake]

Santorum drones will be armed (and controlled from Dick Cheney's bunker)

[RalphVa]

I think they'd have a hard time saying that we're "indecent". It'd be like someone telling God that what he created is indecent.

Think the only way to be indecent is to act indecently, not just to be naked.

[Naturist Mark]

The drone manufacturing industry expects to sell 30,000 surveillance drones for use within the United States in the next 8 years.
Last December the Stanford Law Review published an article that says that existing privacy laws are so weak that they will in no way inhibit the widespread use of surveillance drones to spy on private property - but they suggest that they might very well spur privacy advocates to change the laws to increase privacy rights. Others suggest that Americans have become so used to the idea of no personal privacy that it won't even be an issue.

Just think how safe nudist resorts will be in 8 years when the local sheriff departments have drones circling overhead 24/7. The nudists will know whenever something is happening elsewhere in the county by noting the absence of the drones over the nudist park.

Here's a story with a bunch of related links: Keep Your Drones Outta My Face

[naturalmanwa]

Privacy? Satellites have been taking photos since the Vietnam war era. They have been used in all sorts of spy activity and have super accurate cameras. The drones will be nothing new, perhaps just cheaper.

[Naturist Mark]

Privacy? Satellites have been taking photos since the Vietnam war era. They have been used in all sorts of spy activity and have super accurate cameras. The drones will be nothing new, perhaps just cheaper.

True, but military satellites are not looking for dress code violations in people's backyards, and the 1 to 3 meter resolution coverage available to corporations and non-military users didn't really violate personal privacy.

Those Google Earth images that show naked people on rooftops etc. who clearly expected privacy are from aerial imagery, not satellite. Drone imagery is equivalent to this, and with 30,000 of them flying around they are going to be ubiquitous - and far from only being in the hands of the military, they will be in the hands of local Sheriff's deputies, corporations, news organizations, and probably internet entrepreneurs who will let you control the cameras from a website. In the brave new world of constant aerial drone surveillance, there will be no such thing as a privacy fence or secluded nudist park or beach.

[Edmontonnudist]

My Problem is this: Who is paying for these Drones? The Tax Payer? They are talking about this in Canada , as well.

[Archaewok1]

This is where we buy signal jammers for our property so that any low flying drones crash land while they are trespassing.

[Kouak]

This is where we buy signal jammers for our property so that any low flying drones crash land while they are trespassing.

We don't own the air above us so they can never trespass. The FCC disallows signal jammers, I believe.

[Naturist Mark]

My Problem is this: Who is paying for these Drones? The Tax Payer? They are talking about this in Canada , as well.

Government at all levels. This is part of the extension of military industrial complex to state and local governments - the same that has brought us police departments with tanks, weapons and the militarization of police in the US. Military contractors make a lot of money now selling to local governments (often with grant money from Homeland Security). This will undoubtedly be the same, but these drones are also going to be sold to private companies - anyone who now uses small aircraft and helicopters for aerial photography, surveillance, prospecting etc. And definitely broadcast news. Think of all the news helicopters over LA multiplied by 100.

All of this will depend on the FAA changing rules concerning low level flight, particularly over populated areas. It is already in the works, and there is big money from defense contractors behind it.