Drones: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

By Lauren Buchanan, Zachary Downes, Raymond Allan, Lauren Dargay, Shawn Wilson and Elizabeth Randolph

Recreational drones have become extremely popular, and, with Christmas quickly approaching, it doesn’t look like their popularity will diminish anytime soon. However, not all operators are aware of the issues and concerns associated with drones. Drone privacy and restrictions have been a hot-button topic amongst drone owners and operators.

In July 2015, Kentucky resident William Meredith was arrested for shooting down a drone that was flying over his property. The case was eventually dismissed, but it brought up many questions about drone privacy and the legal issues surrounding drone use across the country, including in Ohio.

The Complex Privacy Issue

“The privacy thing is complicated,” Joe Vacek, an associate professor of Aviation at the University of North Dakota, said. “It divides itself out into two major realms.”

The first area of drone privacy involves the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that, in cases regarding drones, U.S. citizens do not have Fourth Amendment rights. People have argued that drones give law enforcement a magnitude of eyes in the sky, which, according to some, is unreasonable. Vacek used to have the same opinion, but he now disagrees. “The expectation of privacy is diminished because cameras, especially on mobile devices and now airborne ones, are becoming common,” he said.

The second major realm of drone privacy is the civil privacy of data. “What we have, basically, is a lack of redress, civilly speaking,” Vacek said. Data and information about people is gathered online and aggregated, and that data is not always accurate. “Allowing that data to be collected so easily using drones as a mobile gathering platform, but not counterbalancing that with any sort of civil right to correct that or challenge that really has serious social implications,” Vacek said.

Matt Mishak, a municipal prosecutor in the city of Elyria who is on the board for the Northern Ohio Unmanned Aircraft System Association, said both the public and drone operators need to make adjustments to better understand the privacy issue.

“The fact is that there’s no reasonable expectation of privacy in your backyard from public airspace, Mishak said. “The public needs to understand that this is public airspace up there,” he said, “and just because somebody’s flying a drone, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re nefarious and they’re going to be causing harm or doing something bad.”

Mishak, who also co-founded a company called Dronewerx, uses drones for aerial photography. If there are people nearby when he’s taking photos, he takes time to explain what he is doing with the drone and has had very positive experiences. “On the other hand, if you show up and you start flying a drone around and people don’t understand it and you’re not talking to people, I think that causes immediate suspicion and fear,” Mishak said. “Just a little bit of communication goes a long way.”

Another reason behind the complexity of drone privacy is how quickly drone technology changes and evolves. “Technology is changing so rapidly that we’re playing legal catch-up,” Sam Estrin, who is on the board of advisors for Drone Universities, a drone ground school in California, said, “and because we’re playing legal catch-up, you’re finding drone operators in situations where the law provides no coverage one way or the other, so there’s a lot of room for interpretation.”

What is a Drone, and How Do You Get One

The Federal Aviation Administration expects a million drones will fly off the shelves this holiday season and announced rules that their task force developed for the registry of drones.

A drone is an unmanned remote controlled aircraft, but the name has become synonymous in the consumer market as a four bladed helicopter. A fiscal report by Parrot, a leading drone maker, says the consumer market for drones has tripled since last year.

This year many retail stores are including drone sales in their Black Friday ads including Target, Best Buy, Walmart and even J.C. Penney. Prices for these drones start at only $25 with and can currently be purchased and flown by anyone.

Taylor Suchan, a drone owner from Peninsula, Ohio, got his drone as gift from his grandfather. “I think he got it at
Radio Shack on sale,” Suchan said. “I never planned on owning a drone, it was thrusted upon me.”

Suchan thinks that people’s privacy is the biggest set back from consumers buying drones. “If you get drones with cameras people are going to think they are being spied on, especially if you don’t regulate them.”

The FAA’s task force released its suggestions, which includes web registration for drones 8.5 oz. or higher and the user must be at least 13 years of age. Many toy drones fall into this weight class which weighs less then a can of soda.

The FAA task force’s suggestions are not law yet but will be part of future drone legislation.

The FAA officials are worried that the number of drones nearly missing aircraft will increase with the popularity of drones. According to Representative Rick Larsen in a house meeting on drone safety that there have been over 600 near misses between airplane and drones in regulated airspace, mostly around airports.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Fox echoed Rep. Larsen’s concerns at the press conference in October when he announced the registration task force. “The signal we’re sending today is that when you’re in national airspace, It’s a very serious matter,” Fox said.

Restrictions and Registration

The popularity of consumer drones has raised questions on what drone owners can and can’t do.

Currently, there are very few rules for the use of a consumer drone because it is a new form of technology. These rules include the owner ensuring their drone isn’t more than five miles from an airplane or airport, the drone has to be flown at 400 feet or below and the drone can’t be flown near crowds.

“People don’t understand it (drones) and aren’t educated about them yet,” said Dr. Blake Stringer, lead faculty for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Kent State aviation professor. “All they hear about are these instances where people aren’t doing the right thing with them.”

The FAA is currently leading a public outreach campaign to promote safe and responsible use of unmanned aircraft systems (drones), according to its website. This is more prevalent in Washington D.C., where drone owners are required to keep their drones away from towns and cities within a 30-mile radius of the Ronald Reagan airport. This is because of the airspace being more restricted in Washington D.C. after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The FAA has also developed No Drone Zones where drone owners from across the U.S. can see where they can and can’t fly their drones, as well as register airspace. Stringer said the administration can only do so much because of the advances drones are continuing to make.

“The FAA is trying to regulate an industry that has yet to be regulated,” he said.

Stringer said that the Department of Transportation is also playing a role in regulating drone usage.

“There is talk the Department of Transportation is going to start requiring that they (owners) start registering their drones,” he said.

According to Estrin, the FAA hopes the drone registry will be up and running before the holidays.

Ohio House Bill 228

State legislators are debating whether or not to push HB 228 forward, which would further regulate the use of drones in the Buckeye State. If this were to pass, drone operators who fly without permission or violated privacy land themselves behind bars.

The bill’s primary sponsor in the house is Ohio Representative Robert R. Crupp (R) from Lima in Allen County.

HB 228, if passed, would fall under Chapter 2917: Offenses Against the Public Peace in the Ohio Revised Code. Drone privacy violations would fall under the same category as crimes like aggravated rioting, disorderly conduct and inciting to violence.

Photographer Matt Unger invested in a $4,000 drone to get a new angle in his business. Unger knows that if HB 228 passes, he would have to keep a close eye on his drone to avoid getting in trouble. Overall, he feels confident and educated enough in drone operation to steer clear of jail time.

Unger says his deep love for photography and videography outweigh the strict rules by the FAA and potentially, HB 228.

Drone Operator Education

The FAA is predicted to have a set of rules and regulations on drone use within the next two years. Education on the issue is also currently being set in place.

“There will be some kind of educational or pilot requirement for owners,” Stringer said. “Owners will be aware of the airspace that they can operate in.”

In 2014, the FAA partnered with the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and the Academy of Model Aeronautics to create the Know Before You Fly education campaign. The campaign’s goal is to educate drone users on safety and restrictions.

“The Know Before You Fly campaign really covers…the things you need to make sure that you are not doing to keep yourself out of trouble,” Estrin said.

While the FAA is working to educate all regions, cities and states on drone usage, Ohio, specifically in the Northeast, has tried to educate drone owners before the rules are set in place. The NOUASA is one of the organizations that have been most prevalent in the movement.

“It brings government, academia, industry, entrepreneurs and remote owners together so they can help to educate them (drone owners) on what is expected,” Stringer said.

How Drones Are being Used and Where They Are Going

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) or drones are being used in a number of different ways. Most people know the about drones through recreational use or photographers using them in their works. But drones are revolutionizing a number of different industries some you may not even know about.

One of the most surprising industries that drones are helping is change is farming. Farmers used to fly planes and helicopters over their fields to spot differences in their crops, which wasn’t the most cost effective way to monitor their fields. Now with the use of drones farmers can get a great over head view of their fields much cheaper. Some farmers are even equipping their drones with infrared cameras to help them locate trouble spots in their fields

Fire departments are also using drones for a couple different tasks too. At the scene of a fire departments use drones to fly above the blaze and see where the fire is at its hottest and how the fire is spreading. Departments can also use drones in search and rescue operations. On terrain where emergency vehicles cant get to or would have a hard time getting over drones are being used to search for the missing persons.

The future of drones is unclear but one thing is for sure- they aren’t going any where. Nich Carte, an aviation student  at Kent State, said this about drones: “I think they are going to go everywhere. You will see them expand into all industries, and when they become more privatized you will see a world of uses for them.”

Carte compared drones to cell phones. “When Cell phones first started few people had them, now every one has one and there is all types of phones for all types of users.”

 [pullquote]”I think they are going to go everywhere. You will see them expand into all industries, and when they become more privatized you will see a world of uses for them.”- Nich Carte[/pullquote] 

With the amount of drones coming into the hands of consumers, laws are being proposed and made to help regulate drone usage. These laws will cover registering the drones, how drones can be used and where drones will be allowed to operate.

The NFL has already adopted laws for drone use and other businesses are sure to follow suit.

“Eventually everyone will have some form of drone. You will have the people who use them for recreation and then you will have people who use them for their careers.”