House to weigh drone privacy

The House Judiciary Committee is planning to hold a hearing on drone privacy protections on Thursday, as the Federal Aviation Administration considers a drastic expansion of the use of the devices. 

The FAA is in the process of crafting regulations for increased drone use alongside commercial airplanes. 

The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet is meeting on Thursday afternoon to discuss the privacy protections that will need to be put in place to go along with a large increase in nonmilitary drone use. 

{mosads}“Commercial applications of unmanned aerial vehicles holds great promise. As commercial drone use becomes more affordable and accessible, the marketplace is finding new, innovative ways to apply drone use to both emerging and traditional industry needs,” said the panel’s chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). 

“These applications hold the potential to change how we receive Internet service, various goods, and even how we monitor and access remote places of the world or disaster areas,” Issa continued. “At the same time, an expanded use of UAV technology requires that the public and private sectors work together to ensure consumers’ safety and privacy are fully protected.” 

The FAA has been working on regulations for allowing a rapid expansion of the use of commercial drones in the U.S. for years. Congress ordered the agency to develop a framework by the end of this year in a 2012 aviation funding bill. 

The FAA has faced tremendous pressure to approve such an expansion of nonmilitary drone use from companies such as Amazon, who have said the technology can be used to make speedier online deliveries. 

Police and other law enforcement groups are also seeking approval to use the technology, and the FAA has investigated several drone incidents that occurred in conjunction with photography at college and professional sporting events.

The agency has said recently that it has approved more than 1,000 drone flights under a section of federal law that allows the Transportation Department to wave requirements for FAA approval for unnamed aircraft operations that take place outside of restricted airspace and below 200 feet. 

Issa said Thursday’s hearing “will represent a great opportunity to hear more about how we can best balance the groundbreaking use of a promising new technology while mitigating the security concerns that accompany the technology’s spread.”

The chairman of the full Judiciary Committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), agreed, saying “the IP subcommittee will hold an educational hearing to examine the policy and legislative implications for this new area of technology and the potential effects on issues including privacy, safety, and intellectual property. 

“Unmanned aerial vehicles are a new and rapidly growing technology that has a wide range of uses from commercial applications to recreational and consumer ones,” Goodlatte said in a statement. “Unmanned aerial vehicles can be used to monitor construction projects, forests and parks. They can be used by farmers to survey and manage crops. They can also be used for search and rescue operations. However, with the advent of any new technology comes some challenges.”