"It's ok. It's ok because it seems reasonable."
It is crossing lines.
It is governmental activity that the citizenry does not know about, does not consent to, and here you are going "Well, it was for a good reason I guess."
My conclusion reading your paragraph is that the rule of law means nothing to you.
Your comment really seems to be a reaction to the NSA issue.. and on that I'm with you 100%.. but...
US police forces and the FBI regularly fly helicopters -- without a warrant. How is this any different?
You make it remote controlled and suddenly it becomes completely different?
You'll have to explain that one to me.. because I really don't get it.
However, at the moment, this is overly expensive and kind of far-fetched, so most people aren't aware of the long-term implications. 30-40 years from now, though?
That is not at all how drones are being used according to this article. Until then, plant some trees in your yard and keep calm. There are enough real transgressions going on that we don't need to whip ourselves into a frenzy over hyped stories like this one.
If drones are physically visible I worry that an "implied consent" will develop and the issue becomes unwinnable.
What you say is true but irrelevant. More than that, if you paid attention to the actual issue at hand instead of performing, I dunno, some basic cost-efficiency exercise, you'd see that "Manned aircraft are prohibitively expensive" is a source of pressure in the system.
Manned aircraft are increasingly flown largely by machine. The recent San Francisco crash may have been prevented if a computer had been more active (if not in full control).
Cost-efficiency might indicate we should push for such a thing, but we're comforted by the thought of a man at the helm.
Why's that? Because that means a man has oversight of the automatic system.
But we're going to want our planes to be fully automated at some point.
So a drone flown by a man elsewhere may well be replaced by a drone flown by a drone elsewhere.
And cost-efficiency means that there can be a great many of these drones in play.
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All of this would be fine if it were an earnest conversation about the role of government in society. This is not the case.
The rule of law is being violated and it is an affront.
Now I'm not exhorting you to share my viewpoint. I'm quite honestly just contemptuous of what I see as your waffling grey in a situation that is increasingly black and white.
Also: at no point in this or any other thread did I choose to make an argument by calling you a name. Perhaps you could extend everyone else that same courtesy.
Edit: I mean, c'mon. 2006 only stirs the pot further.
>> In June, FBI Director Robert Mueller admitted that his agency uses drones to spy on US citizens without any “operational guidelines.”
I am content to end this conversation here.
Either way: what does it matter that drones have been used as lethal weapons? Manned aircraft have been used as lethal weapons for almost as long as there's been manned aircraft.
You keep saying this. Could you tell us WHAT rule of law you think is being violated?
"Florida v. Riley, 488 U.S. 445 (1989), was a United States Supreme Court decision which held that police officials do not need a warrant to observe an individual's property from public airspace."
All of these arguments are looking increasingly like conspiracy theories.
That's not really fair, right? I mean this is Hacker News, so it makes sense that people are expressing interest in and concern about things related to technology.
>All of these arguments are looking increasingly like conspiracy theories.
I don't get this talk about "conspiracy theories". It's not a theory once it's unveiled and right in your face, is it? Trying to dub people's reactions or sentiment about these topics as conspiracy theories is dismissive and effectively a back-handed ad hominem attack.
It is not a reason-based response to people's legitimate concerns and, worse, it's just plain incorrect. It is not theories that the government is using drones, massive surveillance programs, etc. These are admitted facts.
Obviously I'm not talking about using unmanned drones when I talk about conspiracy theories. I'm talking about Helianthus' entire argument and the arguments I see being perpetuated here. He walks you through it (in true conspiracy-theorist style), asking questions you would never really ask and then answering them as though he makes some big revelation.
They are taking this fact, that the government is flying unmanned blimps around DC as a more cost-efficient way to patrol DC's skies than having manned fighter jets, and using it as proof that the government is spying on civilians with absolutely no evidence. You see these types of folks pop up in news articles like this all the time, because they think they finally have the proof they need to convince the unwashed masses that there's something deeper going on. It just happens that HN is on an anti-government crusade, so they're passing out upvotes like candy to anyone who posts something remotely angry about the NSA.
I don't see them. I do see the following:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6115088
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6113296
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6113582
All have a technology angle.
And, in any case, I was referring to the bad analogies you'd used: No, I don't expect a lot of discussion about women's reproductive rights here. I do expect discussions about search engine privacy.
>You guys are bouncing around in your own little bubble
Who is "you guys"?
>Meanwhile, you stay ignorant to the rest of the country and what it actually cares about
No. I just don't discuss everything here. I'm curious though: what do you think the rest of the country cares about?
>People here are literally saying that we're in a dictatorship or a tyranny because the FBI asked for the use of unmanned drones 10 times in the past 10 years.
No. It's also the NSA surveillance, Patriot Act, Guantanemo, torture, and a ton of other erosions of trust. I am curious to know at what point you think it will be appropriate to have some concern.
>and using it as proof that the government is spying on civilians with absolutely no evidence
But, the evidence is that the FBI admitted to doing just that. You may argue that the number of cases to which they admitted don't bother you, but you can't really argue that there's no evidence that they are doing it, can you?
Listen, if you disagree because you're not concerned, then that's your prerogative. But, please argue your point instead of pretending that these factual things aren't happening and calling everyone who acknowledges them "conspiracy theorists".
Because for me, there need not be anything "deeper" going on to be greatly concerned. The admitted facts are by far enough to make me worry about the future of our nation. And, really, with everything we know, the biggest question in my mind is when do people like you grow concerned?
Applying Alito's interpretation of the Fourth Amendment (and everyone who joined with him in the Jones concurrence), the fact that manned aircraft are probability expensive make them fundamentally different than a much cheaper technology. The idea is a reasonable person knows manned aircraft are super expensive and thus law enforcement will only use them in certain situations. Because of this, such activity is not considered a search under the Fourth Amendment. However, according to Alito, this does not mean that the search is still considered reasonable when the same activity becomes much cheaper. Indeed, he held that extremely lengthy tailing of a vehicle on public roads with a cheap GPS device constituted a search while the _same_ activity done manually by law enforcement did not constitute a search.
For what it's worth, I think the FBI's use of drones here is fine. I'm one of the last people on HN who would ever jump on this surveillance bandwagon/train wreck we are seeing. I bring this up because four Supreme Court justices believe that the cost of an activity can determine whether it constitutes a search (yes, it is not settled law). Because of this, drones being cheaper isn't actually an argument for them being ok. The correct argument here is that drones are cheaper, but still probability expensive to deploy en-mass against the public. If drones ever become cheap enough to do that (like the GPS device in Jones), then it's a whole different ballgame.
The problem with the RT article is that it treats any instance of the DoJ using unmanned aircraft as a kind of constitutional crisis.
The only way I would see it being feasible to forbid government from using drones just because they're cheap, is to forbid it for everyone.
That might not be a bad idea (it's what we did for phone wiretapping), but then we still end up in a situation where the government has more power, as they would then exclusively control the use of public airspace for drones. Cops aren't the only ones who could make productive use of drones (nor is the government in general), so I'm not sure we'd want to make that tradeoff, at least unconditionally.
In my opinion the only thing to be concerned about is Ginsberg being replaced by Thomas/Scalia. If that happens, the way the Supreme Court will come down on this issue is not so clear. It's definitely something to worry about. According to a certain block in Congress, winning two presidential elections still doesn't entitle you to make appointments.
Their source is Rand Paul so this is not all that surprising. His 2012 anti-drone bill would have made it so improper use of a drone would exclude the evidence collected by drone, and authorized civil suits against operators of said drones. Sounds good...except it was extremely broad.
Here is an example of drone use that would be covered. An endangered species of bird has nested on a university campus. A bird researcher at the university is using a small drone with camera to periodically observe the nest. His research is partly funded by an NSF grant.
While flying the drone to the nest one evening, the researcher sees a man attempting to rape a woman in a public area of the university, and alerts the police.
This would have been forbidden drone use under Paul's bill unless the researcher had a warrant. The researcher would have been covered because he was partly funded by the Federal government, and that was sufficient to put one under the bill. The evidence stemming from the drone use would be inadmissible and the researcher could be sued by the attempted rapist.
There was an exigent circumstances provision in the bill that provided an exception when swift action was necessary to prevent danger to life. That would at first SEEM to apply to an attempted rape in progress. Alas, the exigent circumstances only applied to drones operated by a "law enforcement party", which the bill defined as authorized by law or funded by the Federal government to investigate or prosecute offenses against the United States. A university bird researcher is not a "law enforcement party", and so the exigent circumstances exception does not apply. (Heck, even state and local police would not be law enforcement parties, because they investigate offenses at the state and local level, not offenses against the United States).
Fortunately this bill died quickly. There is a 2013 version. The House version takes out the part about it covering anyone who is funded in whole or part by the Federal government, so would remove my hypothetical biologist from coverage. It would only apply to drones operated by entities acting under the authority of the Federal government.
The Senate version still covers anyone who is funded in whole or part by the Federal government.
Here's the 2013 House version: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr972
Here's the 2013 Senate version: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s1016
Manned aircraft are large and obvious, and as you say they are prohibitively expensive, naturally limiting the extent of their use.
Drones can be expected to continue to get smaller and smaller and less noticeable. They can also be expected to become cheaper and easier to deploy in larger numbers than manned aircraft.
In general, the barrier to monitoring by obvious means ought to be lower, as if it is generally going to be noticed, it can be challenged - whether in person or through the courts.
And high costs of manned aircraft also creates a natural barrier that makes excessive surveillance of this type less likely and so less problematic.
The less obvious monitoring becomes, and the easier to becomes to employ en masse, the more oversight it needs because the resulting abuse potential is substantially higher.
They are not necessarily obvious. With a gyro stabilized camera, you can use very high magnification and still track a target. Here's article about this technology and what it can do: http://articles.latimes.com/2007/mar/30/entertainment/et-cin...
They can get detailed images from two miles away. It would be pretty hard in most city environments to notice that a helicopter two miles away is following you. That covers enough area that the helicopter could fly patterns that make it look like it is doing some kind of survey or training or something innocuous, so that even if you notice it, it would not seem suspicious.