Civilian Drones Research Paper

Are Drones an Infringement of Privacy? A drone or UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) is an unmanned aircraft or ship that can navigate autonomously without human control or beyond line of sight (Banafa 2014). The first use of drones goes back to 1849, when Australians attacked Venice with unmanned balloons with explosives on board. The United States military has been using UAV’s since World War One to spy and drop bombs behind enemy lines; however drones have made a more recent appearance in the civilian world, often asking the question, “Are they recording me?” Civilian drones have a variety of uses: they can be used for topological surveying, aerial views of land, games, construction sites, life guards on beaches use the to throw a buoy at a

Kristina Davis, a writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune, writes about a man named Augustine Lehecka. Lehecka was enjoying a summer at the beach with his friends and a couple of children when a drone flew overhead. Lehecka stated that the camera was “swiveling back and forth” aimed at him and his group. He then threw his shirt at the drone, resulting in the drone crashing onto the beach. The drones’ owner happened to work at the company that produced the drone. Then, police arrested Lehecka on one count of felony vandalism and went to jail. In this situation, I believe that Lehecka was in the right for fearing for his privacy, but also in the wrong for taking action of his own. I believe that he should have gone and tried to peacefully talk to the owner of the drone to resolve differences. It was an invasion of his privacy and I think that if the owner didn’t head to Leheckas’ warning, that he should have called the police. There have been other instances at the beach too. In June of 2015 a woman at a nude beach attacked a teen for flying his drone over her as she sunbathed. In this situation and location, I think the only wrong was that it was recorded. If someone is at a nude beach, they are not going to have very much