Personal Experiences
Vicky/eekiv
"A DRONE!" My friends and I were enjoying one of those blazing hot days that brings the town out to the lake, when all of a sudden our conversations were interrupted by a buzzing object wooshing over our heads. Then it hovered like a mini helicopter, staring at us with its blue lights from across the water. We sat silent. We have all been particularly on edge about surveillance ever since the Snowden revelations and the city's attempt to sneak the Domain Awareness Center into our everyday lives. This is probably why one of my friends, who will remain nameless, yelled "A DRONE!" and tried to hit it with a tennis ball.
I ended up speaking with the guy flying the drone. He's a hobbyist who usually does aerial footage of natural spaces. He knows fellow hobbyists who do drone footage for weddings. This was his first time in a populated place. I asked him what his thoughts were on drones' privacy implications. He said he is all for privacy, but didn't think it would be an issue until more people began flying them. I wondered to myself what security his camera had against remote interception, and if he was just training himself, unbeknownst to him, to be a commercial drone pilot. On the plus side, he forgot from the very beginning to take the lens off the camera. :]
Questions
- Doesn't Alameda County have its own drone?
- What happened to enable private drone ownership, and drone-flying as a hobby?
