Is Domestic Drone Surveillance Ethical?

There are many ways the government uses surveillance; one way is by using Spy drones. Spy drones are used to fly around the United States and “check” on the country for anything unusual, including drug activity, border patrol concerns, and other domestic issues. Even though the government claims spy drones are protecting Americans they are clearly invading privacy and breaking the Fourth Amendment as well, they should not be used.

Drones In America And How They Infringe On The Fourth Amendment and Due Process Of The Law

Menacing spy craft... unmanned aerial vehicles... and missile laden predators. These are the images that come to mind when the word "drone" is spoken. Taken to new heights during the Global War on Terror, military drones have struck fear into the hearts of America's enemies. Now the U.S. government is starting to look inward toward its next target: the American people. Already starting along the US/Mexico border, big brother is indiscriminately watching whole neighborhoods via high tech zoom and heat imaging technology. There is even a debate in congress as to whether it is lawful for an American citizen to be killed by a missile firing drone. These actions and debates have caused legitimate concerns for the American people in regards to

Drones are not the only way for people to invade our privacy. Hackers do that as well by hacking social media accounts, bank accounts, and etc... Hackers try to find out information that they

Since the invention of the plane and other flying machines, there has been the thought of making an unmanned flying machine. Today we know our unmanned aerial vehicles by another name: drones. In my paper I will be using both Colonel Dawn Zoldi’s article about drones at home and “The Drone as Privacy Catalyst”, by Ryan Calo to evaluate privacy-related matters that people should consider when it comes to drones. Zoldi’s analysis of how the government can help with personal privacy and unwarranted use of unwarranted searches will aid my own analysis. I will focus on drones and how they relate to the fourth amendment, taking a nuanced approach to operational purpose, renewing focus on collection, dissemination and retention, molding the remedy to the violation, drone as privacy catalyst and finally adding my own thoughts and criticisms about how this could possibly affect privacy.

Still, drones are a form of invasion of privacy but used in moral awareness will keep fellow citizens safe. I think that law enforcement should use drones to overlook people who have previously broken the law or invaded someone’s privacy. Drones can help America protect its privacy by looking out for potential threats while not invading the innocent American lives. I think congress should consider that drones keep a tab on certain criminals who have committed dangerous crimes, to a certain degree.The Supreme Court cases shown in “Right to Privacy” cases were about personal decisions that invaded an individual’s privacy. Cases such as Kelley v Johnson, Roe v Wade and Griswold v Connecticut presented how the government was being controlling of an individual’s personal decision. For example, in the Griswold v Connecticut, a Connecticut law criminalized the encouragement or use of birth control. The 1879 law said if "any person who uses any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purposes of preventing conception shall be fined not less than forty dollars or imprisoned not less than sixty days." This case was not brought to the U.S.

When the topic of drones is brought up, some may think they are not among us and are objects of the future, while others may have one that they’ve built themselves and put to use already. Drones are being talked about more and more but not necessarily all for good reasons. The reading titled “From the Eyes of a Drone” by Tomas van Houtryve touches upon how drones affect surveillance, photography, and use for weapons. In a BBC article, “Drones: What Are They and How Do They Work?” the author goes into specific detail on how the United States is planning to use drones for the military. If regular drone use becomes a normality in society, it is true that amazing photography will be a positive outcome but what about privacy? Drones can aid the military as well, but if they are released for the general public to use on the daily things may get out of control. While drones can impact several aspects of life positively, they can create even more harm than one may think.

The Patriot Act has authorized the military to utilize drones in domestic airspace, to gather intelligence that pertains to terrorism (Sauter & Carafano, 2012). The military stated that a drone’s primary function is gathering Intel and protect individual rights protected by the U.S. Constitution. The question is, “How can a drone’s surveillance technique and video recording constitute as protecting an individual’s civil liberties?”

Many of the current ways in which drones have begun to be integrated are in search and rescues, 3D mapping, investigative active shooter suspects, crime scene analysis, and crowd monitoring, according to Marco Margaritoff in his article, “Drones in Law Enforcement: How, Where and When They’re Used.” In the 347 United States agencies that use drones, there has been an astounding 518 percent increase in drone usage in the last two years. The reason drones have used in all the events listed above are because they are able to get up into high to reach places where they are able to record events for hours and need little attention, almost like a portable security camera. In terms of active shooter investigations, drones are so useful because they limit the exposure of police to possibly fatal events, but still allows them to receive an accurate depiction of events that are taking place. In regards to crowd monitoring, drones are able to station themselves above a huge crowd and monitor for any suspicious or actions without having officers run through crowds to check on these people, keeping citizens safer as a

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. You hear a drone hovering in your backyard, invading your privacy, what do you do? Many choose the illegal path and decide to shoot or swat it down. With the rise in drone sales, more and more Americans are losing their privacy, and for this reason, the federal government needs to take action and regulate the purchase and flight of drones.

In this article Bart Jansen presents a highly objective viewpoint about how the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has begun regulating drone operations across the nation. Commercial and personal drone use has been on the rise over the past decade, with the military being among the first to begin using remotely piloted aircrafts (RPA). I believe that the FAA is completely going in the right direction with the regulations that are being set in place. As an active duty aviator, I can account multiple instances where drone sightings abnormally close to or on military bases have led to elevated advisories for flight operations. I can only assume that busy commercial airports have to take even greater precautions after sightings of low,

Picture someone sitting inside their house by an opened window, enjoying their personal activities like reading a book or watching television; when all of a sudden, they hear the soft quiet buzzing noise outside the window. They look up to see what looks like a flying remote control toy weighing about fifty-five pounds or less, with four miniature flying helicopter propellers, along with a camera staring right back at them. Then the trail of concerns and questions begin: Who is watching? Is someone taking photographic footage? Why are they watching? Aren’t they trespassing? Can this flying technology cause physical harm? In today’s society, these remote controlled miniature flying pieces of technology are called domestic drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) (“Using Drones”). These domestic drones range in size, and have the ability to fly in all directions with a wide signal range. They also have the capabilities of flying almost anywhere that is open to air space, and can maintain a stable level flying position due to their evenly distributed symmetrical structure (McGlynn). This means that drones can hover in one place and capture high definition images. Domestic drones have the “ability to house high-powered cameras, infrared sensors, facial recognition technology, and license plate readers,” as well as the ability to make customized attachments like weapons, or storage compartments (Dolan; Goodman). The accessibility

CQ Researcher’s article entitled “Domestic Drones” centers on the problems that ensue from the flaws in unmanned aircraft safety. Domestic drone use has expanded from the past few years to an array of firefighting and police surveillance to scientific research and aerial photograph. This expanded use, however, provides several security concerns, including a possible invasion of privacy and relaxed consequences of misuse. The debatable question here is whether drone surveillance by police should always require a warrant (McGlynn). By analyzing two opposing viewpoints on this topic through an in-depth observation of its use of logos, pathos, and ethos, this question can be addressed with professionally formulated perspectives.

According to the article FBI used spy planes inside the u.s., its director admits by McClatchy drones can,”use information to try to stop terror plots.” But the government spying inside the U.S. worries a lot of people.” In the article FBI used spy planes inside the u.s., its director admits by McClatchy ”the government spying inside the U.S. worries a lot of people.” I thought deeper about this quote and this quote is important because in the United States the people have freedom and if people are really afraid of drones flying around spying they would stop that from happening. So this proves that most people are not afraid because they would have stop

"The thought of government drones buzzing overhead and constantly monitoring the activities of law –abiding citizens runs contrary to the notion of what it means to live in a free society" says senator Charles Grassley on a topic that is in very high controversy (Quattlebaum1).Having the sanctity of our own privacy in households and backyards is an entitlement that we all are gifted with, but many people are having that privacy tarnished with a new creation sweeping the country-Drones. Domestic use of drones is raising concerns about privacy and fourth amendment violations in many states and cities. Privacy is only one of the concerns of these drones.Many drones are found crashing into buildings and trees and are considered a huge safety hazard