It looks like the first shot has been fired in drones entering the news on a nightly basis. And that last phrase might be a new analogy in what could happen once drones start infiltrating our airspace to a point where nobody knows what exactly the purpose is. Such is the case in Seattle recently when a woman living in a high-rise apartment looked out her window and saw a drone flying outside with attached video cameras. The immediate concern was that someone was trying to spy on her, even if it turned out to be a Portland drone company videoing footage the other direction for a future building.
Yes, this sounds like grounds for a movie where secret domestic spying has a huge cover story by claiming the drones are used for other purposes. It’s a cover story that could easily happen now in a time when there seems to be too many deranged citizens finding ways to place cameras in places where they attempt to catch someone undressed. Don’t be surprised if there’s a real undercover operation going on in some circles. Those networks are probably investing in an entire fleet of private drones to be used in various nefarious ways.
No doubt the NSA is on to this and perhaps already trying to scope them out, especially terrorists no doubt investing in undetectable drones. Then you have the paparazzi in Hollywood and the rumors they’re already using drones to sneak pictures of celebrities in locations not accessible by those with a camera.
It’s all not a very pretty picture and one step closer to drones being a front-cover news story almost every day. Those stories won’t be just about drone spying either, and we’ll be seeing the gamut of drone situations, including unusual stories. Eventually, the misunderstanding of what drones are doing in our private airspace may lead to them being shot down as somewhat of a war in the air to fight for our privacy.
Will We Hear Stories of Drones Being Shot Down as Payback?
Eventually, the FAA will get around to creating new regulations for drone use. It still means taking many more years based on the complexity of drones, what kind are used, plus what the purpose for each one is. You can also expect those rules will be broken, especially in the world of private drones that may be so small, they can’t be detected by the naked eye. So far, we think of drones as looking like a miniature version of a NASA spacecraft ready for planet exploration. Before long, those drones will be the size of a quarter if not even smaller.
As much as the FAA will have a full plate, drones everywhere means a lot of chaos and misunderstanding. We’ll almost need a cheat sheet in order to tell which drone is which if we happen to spot one in our backyard while outside doing something intended to be private. Before any FAA rules are put into play, expect to hear some stories of people shooting down drones with the assumption a seemingly invading one may be used for spying. Once this happens, things could get messier from there, especially if it turns out that someone shot down a government-owned drone. Also, private drones owned by companies for aerial photography could end up suing those who attempt to shoot their expensive drones down.
It all could become a vicious circle in the way we attempt to perceive drones and react to them out of immediate fear. I’ve written here recently about how we’ll also hear about collisions of drones once the skies become littered with them. The most dangerous will be the collisions with planes and the likelihood of more crashes occurring as a result.
While all of the above sounds like a new form of war, it very well could be. With the government unable to control everything, we could be fighting our own little wars in our backyards every day. As satellite imagery also becomes sharper, it may force more people to spend outdoor time in newly designed glass enclosures with tinted windows to avoid anyone seeing inside. For the survivalists out there, however, they may think the apocalypse is near and waste a lot of their ammunition on eliminating drones over their airspace, one by one.
References:
http://www.kptv.com/story/25863480/portland-drone-company-says-they-werent-peeping
