The Federal Aviation Administration has received over 2,000 comments on its proposed rules for commercial drone flights in the U.S.
The 2,000th comment was received Wednesday and hundreds more are likely to be filed before the deadline on April 24.
Some of the comments assail the FAA for allowing companies to fly drones, saying it will lead to noiser and more dangerous skies. Others ask the agency why it took so long for it to get this far.
The FAA has to do more to ensure these gadgets don’t pose noise, health and welfare risks to all citizens, rather than cater to the whims of hobbyists and commercial interests, wrote James Devlin of San Diego.
Many of the comments are from members of the Academy of Model Aeronautics, which prepared a template for its members to use. Those comments focus not so much on drones but on the effect the regulations would have on model aircraft enthusiasts.
A common theme from other commenters is privacy, although the FAA’s proposal doesn’t address that issue.
I believe everyone is entitled to their ‘privacy’ to an extent, but with a micro UAS [unmanned aircraft system], every citizen in the United States might feel there is a camera on them at all times, wrote Keith Imberger.
The White House has tasked the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to come up drone privacy rules, but earlier this week the Electronic Privacy Information Center asked an appeals court to force the FAA to formulate its own rules.
EPIC argues that congress mandated the FAA in 2012 to come up with a comprehensive plan for integration of drones into the national airspace.
“We are trying to hold the FAA responsible for that plan,” said Jeramie Scott [cq], EIPC’s National Security Counsel, on Thursday.
The proposed regulations can be found on the FAA website and public comments can be submitted through regulations.gov.
Source: PC World
“I believe everyone is entitled to their ‘privacy’ to an extent, but with a micro UAS [unmanned aircraft system], every citizen in the United States might feel there is a camera on them at all times, wrote Keith Imberger.”
This guy…
There already is a camera on us every time we go anywhere! They are called security cameras, traffic cams, and so on. The thing here is that everyone thinks that their lives are so interesting that someone is going to spy in them. Get over yourselves. I’m not saying give up on your privacy rights but don’t think that people who are flying these things that have a very limited battery life are going to waste time looking at anyone in particular. Also there are already endless numbers of manned aircraft with camera payloads and I haven’t heard anyone complain about that hardly at all. And that’s because of the fear that the media created over the word DRONE.
End of rant.