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2/24/2017 0 Comments drone privacy Concerns (blog #5)On my earlier blogs, I mentioned about the issues of people owning drones and the dangers that lead for owning a drone. For a part of blog, I gave a small amount of information about the privacy of drones and now I want to focus on the privacy concern for drones. Imagine if you are sitting down outside relaxing after a stressful day of work or school and all of a sudden you hear a low humming interrupting your relaxation that you are no longer feel alone on the privacy of your home. What you see is a hovering object with a small red-camera lights for eyes and it is trespassing your home and you are concern of who is watching you. The FAA are now setting new rules for drones. The FAA has added a “comprehensive” plan for drones that it governs where drones are flown and that drones are prohibited to be flown within airspace for 5 miles from airports, stadiums, and heavy-populated areas. While the FAA acknowledged the need for privacy regulations, it emphasized that privacy falls outside the scope of its mission for a safe airspace. the federal government has not stepped up to regulate privacy in the airspace, many states are passing their own laws, which may lead to inconsistent enforcement and legal uncertainties. Today, there are 31 states that passed laws that protects people from drone use and limits drone use in private spaces, crowds, and government buildings. California is the main state that enforces the FAA’s drone rules. In Texas, they have their own laws for restricting drone use called the Texas Privacy Act. The Texas Privacy Act addresses privacy concerns and prohibits drones of taking photos of people and in private property also for spying on people. For the rest of the states, the strictest laws are that drones are prohibited to stalk someone and it cannot be flown near a government building. These strict laws that states are enforcing is a good approach to prevent people from using drones to stalk people also to keep in mind about the consequences that they could face if they are caught. Courts have started to take notice of drone privacy issues. The public are also voicing their opinions and concerns about the privacy of drones. According to the national and statewide surveys, “72 percent are very concerned about the use of drones for monitoring people and their daily activities, and most people oppose the use of drones for government and private surveillance” (Briones). On the other hand, 93 percent of the public favors using drones as an emergency assistance for search and rescue operations and for remote areas. Drones have become more affordable and some drones are sold in small sizes that concerns people about their privacy and safety. There was a case in Connecticut called the “gun drone teenager” and it dealt with a father and son posting multiple videos of them using drones firing a gun. Therefore, Businesses should be mindful of the broad regulations governing drone use and individual privacy laws. The FAA should bring the attention of people that own drones that there will be consequences if they are found breaking drone privacy laws. In my opinion, drones are not a very bad thing to own, but it depends of the individual that can use a drone responsibly. Drones are flying objects that people find fun and exciting and it should be used at their homes or private property to avoid any problems from the public and the FAA.
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We live in a world that people revolve in technology to make their life’s easier. Technology is advancing rapidly each year that soon we are going to own self – driving cars. A self – driving car is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input. Self - driving cars can detect their surroundings using a variety of techniques such as radar, lidar, GPS, and computer vision. Self – driving cars have control systems that are capable of analyzing sensory data to distinguish between different cars on the road. As self – driving cars are becoming an interesting type of cars that can take a driver and passengers from point A to point B without the driver putting his hands on the wheel. Can a driver consider trusting a self – driving car to take the driver to their destination without worrying about the car crashing into something or someone? If there was a scenario if a driver operating a self – driving car with their family inside the car and there is a kid running into middle of the road trying to retrieve his or her ball and the car was getting close to the kid. Will you put your fate in your car to do what the car is programmed to do by stopping the car or you will take action and stop the car yourself or try to avoid the kid even though knowing that you can risk your family’s life by colliding with another car? Personally, I won’t trust a self – driving car to take me from point A to point B because I feel like it will still be dangerous and anything can go wrong. Self – driving cars are destined to prevent or reduce car accidents, running over pedestrians, and reduce drunk driving incidents but only time will tell. A self-driving car doesn't completely eliminate the likelihood of a car accident. In fact, there's no legal precedent for how a case would be handled. The cars are not able to operate at a high level of safety in all weather conditions. In fact, heavy rain can do serious damage to the laser sensor mounted on the car's roof, calling into question what role the driver might have to play in the event the technology fails. Another problem is that there is a possibility that maybe in 15 – 20 years when self – driving cars become common, driver will be no longer equipped with the skills to operate cars. In the event of a technology glitch or recall, drivers might be helpless to get around, having been out of practice for driving a car on their own. Many individuals are nervous about handing over all of the responsibility to a computer, which could malfunction and put the driver in a more dangerous situation than if the driver were manning the vehicle himself or herself. Since more likely self – driving cars are going to be electric, the gas companies can become economically impacted. Self – driving cars is destined to keep drivers and passengers safe, but one mistake can take many life’s.
Link for more information about self – driving cars https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/driverless-cars-will-face-moral-dilemmas/ For my second blog, I will be focusing on the issue that I will be possibly writing about is the ethical issue of drones. Drones are remotely piloted aircraft machines that can fly for a long time. People cannot fly drones over 400 feet in the air for any reason unless they have received permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). There have been reports that people flying drones have flew their drones close to aircrafts and exceeded over 400 feet. I think that people owning drones can be dangerous due to the fact that people are not using them responsively. So far, people that own drones are using them as an experiment to test the capabilities that a drone can do. There can be a possibility that a drone can malfunction while it’s on the air and can seriously hurt someone by the drone landing on them. Here are four ethical and legal issues about using drones.
The first ethical issue is about regulating drones. in 2014 that thirty-six states have introduced some legislation aimed towards restricting the use of drones particularly in collecting data for law enforcement and government purposes. The biggest barrier to the adoption of drones in gathering information is that while hobbyists are free to fly drones, most commercial drone activities are currently illegal in the United States. For now, it is better off that law enforcement is only allowed to use drones due to the fact that law enforcement will have proper training to use drones responsively. The second ethical issue is the privacy for drones. There are plenty of news articles about upset beachgoers and private property owners whose privacy has been invaded by private drone operators. A concern about invasion of privacy, in particular when it comes to private property. People that own private property tend to be protective of their land and has zero tolerance of trespassers. Unfortunately, now private property owners have to worry about drones flying over their property due to the fact that drones might be spying on them that can worry private property owners since they won’t know the drone owner’s identity. The third ethical issue is the people’s safety from drones. Since drones are flown at a low altitude, safety has become a primary concern to the FAA. The FAA prohibits flying drones near populated areas or over people for safety reasons. Although the FAA already has a set of regulations from certain areas that drones are not allowed to be flying at, people that own drones are not aware of the regulations and portray that drones can be flown anywhere. The last ethical issue is the UAV noise. The required low altitude flying mandated by the FAA means that drone operations can be incredibly noisy, which can cause a disturbance from people that are close by the drones. In order to address some ethical and legal concerns, drone operators marketing their services towards geographic data collection have the responsibility and ethics statement that pledges for responsible drone operation to safeguard against violating safety and privacy issues. |
Fernando MadrigalHello, my name is Fernando Madrigal and I am a Junior at CSUMB. My major is Computer Science with my concentration in Network and Security. I recently transferred from Hartnell Community College last fall. Archives
May 2017
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