EFF asks: Who's flying unmanned aircraft in the US? | Hacker News Reader

EFF asks: Who's flying unmanned aircraft in the US?

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74 pointscodezero18 comments

Predator Drones are being used against Americans domestically:

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/la-na-drone-arrest-20111211...

Why is this not being questioned every single day in the news? Or on the floor of congress for that matter?

They found a loophole to putting cameras on every streetlight in the USA and pointing them at your front door - they will just keep them flying higher up with better optics.

Oh and it's warrantless too btw, no judicial review.

The future of America - warrantless searches at airports, train and bus stations, warrantless gps trackers on your car, warrantless cellphone tracking, warrantless email backdoors and warrantless drone spying on anyone domestically.

Nah the police would never abuse this and never use the millions in their endless "homeland security theater" budgets to get their own drones for every major city.

The future? You mean the present. You also forgot warrantless Backscatter vans scanning vechicles on the roads: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0927/technology-x-rays-hom...

Remember when the U.S. invaded Iraq nationalistic politicians would ask "Why do they hate our freedom?"

I've been asking myself that question about the people doing these things, presumably some of the same politicians, a lot since then.

Well it sure darn looks like they don't have much to hate us for nowadays.

Yeah, it boggles my mind how easily the Constitution has been discarded in the US. I grew up thinking that was actually somewhat inviolate.

But it's not the future; it's already happened. Most US elected officials -- from former constitutional law professor Barry O. on down the line -- have passed blatantly unconstitutional legislation (kill US citizens with no trial, mandatory military detention of citizens suspected of terrorism with no recourse, etc etc etc bleaaahgh). And this guy:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/my-guantana...

The pragmatic takeaway is that you's better act like the USA is like the corporo-fascist police state dictatorship government of the B-movie scifi flicks you watched growing up. Because it mostly is.

I was really disheartened when I watched that Republican presidential debate a few months back, in which each candidate was asked about the tradeoffs between liberty and security. Aside from Ron Paul, every single candidate on the stage issued a blanket declaration that warrantless surveillance, detentions without due process, and various other infringements on the Constitution were not just acceptable tradeoffs, but necessary ones in the name of "security" (or, really, the mere appearance thereof).

By no means are the Republicans the only politicians party to this attitude, and I don't mean to single them out. But that particular debate really brought everything into alarming focus.

Discarding the liberties afford to US citizens by our founders, as laid down in the Constitution, will do more to destroy this country's greatness than any single act of terrorism ever could.

How do you feel about police helicopters?

At first glance, it would seem flying a Predator over someone's property to do surveillance like in this article would be very, very similar to flying a police helicopter with similar thermal imaging systems.

However, I would never even think of shining a laser at the helicopter, directing an emp pulse towards it, or have my home-made drone attack it. I might have some thoughts about doing that to a flying camera.

I want to know how to disrupt their operation or take them down. It seems people will not take action against a police cruiser for example, but I see less opposition to zapping buzzing cameras flying around.

I envision a day where an xbox game is being played by unsuspecting gamers, and "consensus guidance" is used to fly drones.

Gamers may be the most trained drone pilots. Remote killing could be free of post-trauma-stress-disorder, as the pimple-faced teen was cluelessly bombing the enemy.

Hmmmmm.....

(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105629/)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toys_(film))

Sounds like Enders Game.

Apparently pilots flying remote drones suffer worse from PTSD than those pilots flying conventional aircraft.

http://www.military.com/news/article/predator-pilots-sufferi...

I wonder what AOPA's stance is. On the face of it, unmanned aircraft don't seem able to comply with VFR's see-and-avoid.

I'm not saying it isn't possible, just that it seems problematic with current airspace and flight rules and light aircraft in busy space, which is just the sort of environment where police would want to operate these aircraft.

[edit] It seems the FAA issue a TSA on every launch, which AOPA opposes.

Ah, interesting to note it only has to be certified if it flies over 400 feet. That means lots of DIY and personal drones are still ok, for now. I see this changing in the future, because of a long list of potential criminal applications for UAV drones there will probably be a push towards stricter licensing.

They neglect to mention the below-400 foot limitation only applies to non-commercial use. For commercial use there is no such 'freezone'.

Of course, for governmental agency use, no FAA authorization applies.

Does fly RC planes count? Because lots of people fly unmanned remote controlled planes as a hobby...

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