Privacy and Security: Smile for the Drone: Coming to Police Stations Near You

Privacy and Security: Smile for the Drone: Coming to Police Stations Near you Soon

In 90 short days and counting down, it will be smile for the camera flying overhead, American citizens. Perhaps you should buy a baseball cap now to help in hiding your features from eye in the sky drones before buying a hat also becomes another ridiculous "suspicious" potential terrorist activity for SAR databases? Is that taking it too far when drones are capable of almost constant surveillance? The ACLU warned surveillance drones are coming to a police department near you. When the EFF, ALCU and EPIC all sound a red alert warning about Big Brother's prying eyes, if you care about your privacy then it would be wise to heed it.

Those bug-sized spies called Micro Aerial Vehicles, or MAVs, are the next generation of drones as enivisioned by the Air Force in 2008. "The MAVs could be as tiny as bumblebees and capable of flying undetected into buildings, where they could photograph, record, and even attack insurgents and terrorists. U.S. military engineers are trying to design flying robots disguised as insects that could one day spy on enemies and conduct dangerous missions without risking lives."

Other than future flying drone spies the size of a fly, capable of making every moment a "smile you're on candid camera," UAV tracking privacy concerns include mission creep since domestic drone surveillance may make it easier for law enforcement to track citizens than previous warrantless GPS tracking. In an earlier report [PDF], the ACLU predicted the development of advanced surveillance technology in drones to include, high-powered zoom lenses, night vision, see-through walls imaging, video analytics to identify "suspicious" movement patterns, and distributed video drones that can look at an entire city and stay up in the air for two weeks at a time.

And when you consider the NDAA effectively gives the President the power to treat the whole world as a battlefield, and employ the military anywhere (even in the United States), and that the President has already asserted the right to assassinate Americans, it's highly likely that these drones won't just be used to spy on Americans, but may be used to hunt them down.

A small bug-sized drone would make a fantastic assassination tool wouldn't it?


R.C.
Remember to seriously read my signature down below and be sure you understand what I mean........

they'll keep us safe from terrorists, security has a price.

I wouldn't even mind things like this, if we had a trustworthy or at least SEMI-trustworthy government.

But... no.

ha, finally I get to use my pellet gun for something!!!

I need a targeted emp gun, just zap it out of the sky and laugh... though that would be when they start using it for less than noble reasons. aka when they abuse this power.