Amazon gets U.S. patent to use delivery drones for surveillance service

It almost seems a bit like patenting a Ponzi scheme.

While one can make the argument that surveillance via delivery has positive uses; this seems like it's getting close to stalker/PI territory, one which is downright illegal, the other tends to have at least some level of regulation/licensing around it. Also, any data collection capability by the drone swarms is going to be streaming all the time most likely, so I'd have significant concerns w.r.t. data storage/destruction.

Also, what level of due diligence is Amazon going to actually do to ensure someone requesting the service is actually a resident authorized to give permission for data collection at that location anyway? I can see this type of thing getting abused to case entire locale's under the right circumstances.

Frankly, big tech sentiment going the way it is, I sure hope these things stick to the streets; I can see the more trespassing conscious getting a bit more aggressive about unexpected drones over their property.

Disclaimer: I’m own about $500K in my portfolio in Amazon.

As a shareholder - this is great. Not because I want to stifle competition but because if another company was granted the patent, Amazon would be locked out.

As a general citizen, Amazon is not the issue. To me this is not a concept that you can own a patent on. The patent system is broken. I don’t know how to fix it other than voting.